TACKING ( from tack, from OF. toque, tache, dialectic Fr. tache, nail, tack; so called because of the part of the sail to which the rope is at tached), AND WEARING (from wear, AS. ?cer ium Goth. wasjan, 011G. merjan, to clothe; con nected with Lat. nestis, Gk. eo-thjs, csthes, cloth ing, Slat. vas, to put on clothing). A vessel is said to be on the starboard tuck when she is sailing with the wind on her starboard side, and on the port tack when the wind is on her port side. She is close-hauled on either tack when she is sailing as near to the wind as the set of her sails permits. The operation of changing from one tack to the other is called tacking if the vessel comes up head to wind and then falls ofi' on the other tack, and ?tearing or gybing if she falls ofT—bringing the wind astern—and then comes up to the wind on the new tack.
It is evident from the sketches that in tacking there is a gain to windward—if the vessel is a weatherly one and well managed—while in wearing there is a loss, because part of the time the ship is running away from the wind. There fore, tacking is always preferred when praeti cable. While all properly built vessels will tack under ordinary conditions of sea and wind, there are times when the sea is very rough and the wind so strong that little sail can be carried: or the wind may he too light to give sufficient headway for tacking; or the vessel may be im properly sparred or ballasted. In these cases ircaring is necessarily resorted to. In vessels carrying fore-and-aft sails only the operation of tacking requires little labor, but in square rigged ships the yards must be swung and the sails adjusted on the new tack. Wearing is
called gybing when the vessel is fore-and-aft rigged and carries a boom mainsail which is not taken in or lowered during the operation. It containing one or more sheaves or pulleys and a strap to attach the block to the weight or sup port. It is evident that in all cases one block of a tackle, or one end of the rope—if there is a is evident that when the wind, in wearing, passes from one side to the other of such a sail it will give a thrust of considerable violence, and this thrust must be carefully watched in small ves sels—and in large ones if the wind is strong er it may cause them to capsize.
Tacking is frequently called going about. While the operation is in progress a vessel is in stays; if she fails to tack and falls back on the same tack as before, she is said to miss stays. A lively, fast-moving vessel, particularly if deep ly loaded, will, before losing way, shoot some distance directly up into the wind after it is out of her sails. Advantage is frequently taken of this fact to avoid some slight obstruction, when tacking is undesirable or otherwise unnecessary,. and the operation is called making a half board.' To make a good board is to lose nothing to lee ward; to make short boards is to tack fre quently; to make sternboard is to go astern.