Vent Portant

Le Carre Hermes Paris >> Printemps - Ete 1992

This elegant sailing ship is a cutter dating from the 1930s. It can run before the wind (with a following wind), sail free (off the wind), or sail close to, or near the the wind (heading on "in the wind's eye" or "in the teeth of the wind").  Sometimes it will bear away, sailing with the wind and tide. In nautical usage, as in the language of craftsmen, the most precise, technical terms are always the finest, for they are the most eloquent.