Some boats have two pointy ends at the same end of the boat and one or two non-pointy ends at the other end of the boat. This situation may cause some confusion to the crew, who may not know which pointy end they are supposed to attend to. A few of these are almost as pointy at the non-pointy end as they are at the pointy end, so one must be careful to look for the most-pointy end. Some boats even have three pointyends and one or two non-pointy ends. Some boats have pointy ends that are pointier that then pointy ends of other boats. The decision of how pointy a pointy end should be has long been a topic of serious discussion amongst boat designers, but that topic is far beyond the scope of this primer.

A further clue is that the boat usually will be steered from the non-pointy end by means of a wheel, or a stick that points back towards the end of the non-pointy end. Sometimes one might observe a boat being steered from the pointy end by means of a big piece of cloth that is dumped over the side of the boat causing the bat to turn in that direction. Judging by the frequency of use, especially in races, some skippers favour this method of steering. Indeed skippers may foten be seen jumping for joy or wildly waving their arms in exaltation following a successful "spinnaker turn".

A final clue to which end is the pointy or non-pointy one is that the movemnet of the boat is most often in the direction of the pointy end of the boat, except when it is not.

The good news for the new sailor is that having read this tutorial, and having properly identified the pointy end and the non-pointy end of the boat, he may now prcoceed to employ the terms "bow" for the pointy end of the boat and "stern" for the non-pointy without fear of sounding like a complete idiot.