Editing Point of sail (section)

=== Reaching ===
A craft sailing with the true wind on its side (within limits) is ''reaching''.<ref name="Jobson" /> Wind is flowing over the surface of the sail, creating lift (like a wing) to propel the craft. Because lift is more powerful than drag on this point of sail, sailing craft achieve their highest speeds on a reach.<ref name="fastest" /> A variety of [[High-performance sailing|high-performance sailing craft]] sail fastest on a broad reach with the sails close-hauled at speeds several times the true windspeed. Depending on the angle of the true wind with respect to the course sailed, a reach may be ''close'', ''beam'', or ''broad'', as follows:

* A '''close reach''' is a course closer to the true wind (more upwindwards) than a beam reach, but below close-hauled; i.e., any angle between a beam reach and close-hauled. The sails are trimmed in (hauled towards the centreline of the hull), but not as tightly as for a close-hauled course.

* A '''beam reach''' is when the true wind is at a right angle to the direction of motion (so called because the wind is parallel to the cross-hull beams, if any; see [[:wiktionary:beam#Noun|beam]]).

* A '''broad reach''' is when the wind is coming from behind the sailing craft at an angle. This represents a range of wind angles, between a beam reach and running downwind (see next paragraph). On a sailboat (but not an iceboat) the sails are eased out away from the sailing craft, but not as much as on a downwind run. If the sailcraft points any further downwind, the sails cease acting substantially like a wing.