JOTD: point

[Amgine]

Point is one of those words which has just too many uses in sailing. Here are some of the ones I have:

Noun: point of sail: the direction of the vessel's course relative to the wind as follows:

• close-hauled - as close to the wind as the vessel will efficiently sail, generaly no less than 45° off the wind.
• close reach - less than close hauled, but closer than a beam reach.
• beam reach - approximately 90° to the wind.
• broad reach - above a run, but below a beam reach.
• run - with the wind from astern, with the foresails blanketed by the boomed sail(s) unless set wing-and-wing.

Noun: point of the compass

1. Any of the 32 points of the traditional compass rose (will be covered another day under "boxing the compass".)

Nound: a point

1. A geographical projection from a coastline.
2. A "fix", or specific known location. Especially as charted during navigation.
   

Verb: to point

1. Sailing close hauled
2. To shoot up into the wind briefly, chiefly to gain strategic advantage while racing.

Adjective/adverb

1. the ability to sail close to the wind, especially above 45° to the apparent wind.
2. Sailing higher than is efficient, "pinching".

Anyone disagree with the above? Do you have other sailing uses of the word "point" that I don't have here?

[SkiprJohn]

All good points.

[hellosailor]

What was the point of the question?

[Pblais]

I think he is pointed in the right direction.

[Amgine]

communication is definitely a part of my definition of seamanship. So I was wondering if the above were all the ways the word is used by sailors, if there were more or if any were wrong?

(asked pointedly...)

[Pblais]

I think what we are all trying to say is it looks like a complete list. In that sense it is a diffcult word as its use includes many different things.

[hellosailor]

I would pun that Ynglitch is a many-colored language, and that if one wants to sail with utmost precision the conversation probably should be held in German, or the entire crew forced to learn Sanskrit or Old High Norse, so that they could have an "Academie NonFrancaise" to set the official definitions.

There is no one English. The Brits lost the patent rights during the American Revolution. The Canadians refused to play along. And what the Brits endowed on "South Asia" and the other colonies has come back to haunt them. Then there's Oz, where ex-convicts have every right to reject the mother tongue, and NZ. And that's just one fast handful, after all if it wasn't for that Lincoln fellow there would be two "America's" south of Canada as well.

Nuance and variation will NEVER be consistant and rarely be "correct" once a mother tongue has forked that many times. You may as well complain that no one speaks proper Indo-European any more. Well, they don't. They call what's left of it by many other names, each with its own rules now.

Be careful of which YnGlitch you are surrounded by, when asking a Bobbie for a torch and a faggot while you check a valve under his bonnet.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Then there's Oz, where ex-convicts have every right to reject the mother tongue, and NZ. And that's just one fast handful, after all if it wasn't for that Lincoln fellow there would be two "America's" south of Canada as well.

Nuance and variation will NEVER be consistant and rarely be "correct" once a mother tongue has forked that many times.
Be careful of which YnGlitch you are surrounded by, when asking a Bobbie for a torch and a faggot while you check a valve under his bonnet.

As you say, a strange language but even so it's a bit unfair to suggest that we Australians have rejected New Zealand or that we had a right to do so even though they talk funny and beat us at Rugby all the time.

So the Native Americans were correct ? White man really does speak with forked tongue ?

As for faggots, that's a topic that is too hot to handle I'm afraid.

[mudnut]

I was told once by an English mon,that a faggot was a type of sausage.I offen wonder if thats where the term:You silly sausage: came from.This same Engish mon got kicked off a london bus for calling the female conducter a Faggot,when all he ment was "You silly sausage"Mudnut.

[S/V Elusive]

I HAVE to say it ... can we get back on .... ::sigh:: POINT?

[hellosailor]

Mudnut:
I forgot, a faggot is a small stick, or a bundle of small sticks used as kindling in firewood. I meant to say "fag", which is a cigarette on one side of the pond, and either fighting words or a source of pride on the other.<G>


ornament or join (fabric) by faggot stitch; "He fagotted the blouse for his wife"
fasten together rods of iron in order to heat or weld them
fagot: offensive terms for an openly homosexual man
bind or tie up in or as if in a faggot; "faggot up the sticks"
fagot: a bundle of sticks and branches bound together
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
A faggot is a kind of pork meatball, a traditional dish in parts of the UK, especially Wales and the Black Country. It was originally made from unwanted off-cuts of meat (typically a blend of sausage meat and offal, especially Liver).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
In modern American and Canadian usage faggot or fag is a generally pejorative term for gay men. The origins of the word in this sense have been clouded by mythology.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(slang)
A faggot is an archaic imperial unit applied to collections of stick
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(unit_of_measurement)
in homophobic usage, a slang term of abuse denoting (in general) a gay man, but connoting (in particular) the gender image of male wimpiness or effeminacy. In the rhetoric of Gay Liberation, it has been reappropriated as a term of pride signifying a gay man who openly defies the conventionally shameful implications of the term. Some people think that the use of the term derives from the medieval practice of burning sodomites at the stake using bundles of sticks called "faggots. ...
familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html
a stack of spilt and salted cod-fish at various stages of the drying process.


Today someone allegedely from Oz asked about how to replace a "globe". Globe? Yeah, you know, little glass thing, you put electricity into it and it glows. Oh, a LIGHTBULB.<G> Here, the "globe" is a glass ball surrounding a light bulb in a fixture--if you are in the lighting trades. Otherwise, it's a round map of the earth.

[mudnut]

Hellowsailor,I was commenting on how english language seems to have gone astray.I never really thought about looking up the word "Faggot"on its own,but,I did look up "faggot sausage"That was the least I could do,and,people that know me would say thats the most I could do,being computer illiterate.Heres what I got back.In England there is a sausage called a faggot which is chopped seasoned liver wrapped in caul(Whatever that is)The picture they gave had it looking like a rissole,hence the term,Silly sausage.I know about the bundles of wood and the gay boy stuff.My English friend of a few years offten spoke in "old english & modern English"which was a bit hard to follow at times,mostly when a bit pissed.Faggot is very close to "fegato"which in Italian means"Liver"Coincedence?I dont know,but ,the term silly sausage is English,old or new,hence my thought.Now about that lightbulb,I sure hope somebody help that poor Aussie fellow out<G>(my first<G> by the way)Maybe,he's a silly sausage.Mudnut

[mudnut]

Originally Posted by Amgine

Point is one of those words which has just too many uses in sailing. Here are some of the ones I have:

Noun: point of sail: the direction of the vessel's course relative to the wind as follows:

• close-hauled - as close to the wind as the vessel will efficiently sail, generaly no less than 45° off the wind.
• close reach - less than close hauled, but closer than a beam reach.
• beam reach - approximately 90° to the wind.
• broad reach - above a run, but below a beam reach.
• run - with the wind from astern, with the foresails blanketed by the boomed sail(s) unless set wing-and-wing.

Noun: point of the compass

1. Any of the 32 points of the traditional compass rose (will be covered another day under "boxing the compass".)

Nound: a point

1. A geographical projection from a coastline.
2. A "fix", or specific known location. Especially as charted during navigation.
   

Verb: to point

1. Sailing close hauled
2. To shoot up into the wind briefly, chiefly to gain strategic advantage while racing.

Adjective/adverb

1. the ability to sail close to the wind, especially above 45° to the apparent wind.
2. Sailing higher than is efficient, "pinching".

Anyone disagree with the above? Do you have other sailing uses of the word "point" that I don't have here?

Sorry if I went O/T on ya,Im easily led astray.Point being.It's not only in sailing that you would find all these variations in the term"Point"Points add up to tally a score,you can,point someone out,life could be pointless but that might not be the point.I agree with you about the word/term point.It could be confuseing if one didn't now which point you were talking about.With all the different points you have covered"above"You shouldn't have a problem understanding them in their applied meaning.Mudnut.