Ship's Attitude

The orientation of a ship to the wind is called the ship’s “attitude.” There are four attitudes with which the player needs to be familiar: 1) reaching; 2) running; 3) close-hauling; and 4) heading into the wind. The direction of these winds is indicated by the image shown.

The wind's effect on movement can greatly change the speed of a ship depending on its attitude. A ship heading into the wind will always come to a full stop. That is why ships will tack to the left or right of the direction of the wind, close-hauling their way forward.

The most effective speed is achieved by moving with the wind to the left or right rear (reaching), rather than running directly with the wind. A longer description of each of these is given below:

Reaching indicates the wind is coming nearly perpendicular to the ship’s attitude, adjusted to fit the hex grid of the battle map. Because of this limitation, we need not be concerned with close, broad or beam reaches for the purpose of the rules (which would require creating six more compass points). The reach is usually the fastest point of sail.

Running indicates the wind is coming from behind the ship which then moves in the same direction as the wind. This point of sail is slightly less efficient than reaching for most vessels.

Close-hauling describes when a ship is beating or working to windward, when a ship’s sails are trimmed (set) so that it is sailing as close into the direction of the wind as it can go. When close-hauling, a ship is moving at its slowest speed while yet making progress.

Heading to the wind describes a course that is too close to the direction from which the wind is blowing, causing the ship to stop moving forward and begin drifting. For the system’s purposes, a ship that has turned its head into the wind will come to a stop once the ship’s movement of that round has been spent.

Ships may, if they wish, trim their sails to reduce their speed to any speed less than their maximum, no matter what the ship’s attitude may be.

See Also,
Naval Combat
Wind