OK, this weekend on Afterburner we got into a heated debate on the correct definitions of point-of-sail terms. Are terms such as reach, beam reach & broad reach always in reference to true wind or apparent wind?

My opinion:
On boats that sail at good fractions of the true wind speeds or better, to me it makes no practical sense to talk about what the true wind is doing. You set the sails & steer the boat according to the apparent wind. So, why bother with doing the mental calculations taking into account boat speed, apparent wind speed & apparent wind direction just to be able to state "I'm sailing on a broad reach to the true wind" when in fact all I need to know is the wind is striking the sails at a beam or close reach, my sail are set accordingly and my boat is going fast or faster than true wind.
My cohorts on Afterburner don't want me stating "we're on a beam reach" when the apparent wind is at 90 degrees to our heading. They want me to say "we're on a broad reach", with respect to the true wind.

Mike.