La barca a vela torna a questo ormeggio.

Barca a vela means sailboat or sailing boat.

• barca = boat
• vela = sail

The pattern noun + a + noun is common in Italian for describing what something uses or is characterized by. So barca a vela literally means something like boat with sails / boat powered by sail.

If you said only barca, that would just mean boat, without specifying what kind.

Here, a does not mean to. It is part of a fixed expression.

In Italian, a is often used in phrases like these:

• barca a vela = sailboat
• barca a motore = motorboat
• macchina a gas = gas-powered car
• fornello a gas = gas stove

So in barca a vela, the a helps express the idea of powered by / using / characterized by sails.

Torna is the third-person singular present tense of tornare.

So it can mean:

• he returns
• she returns
• it returns

In this sentence, the subject is la barca a vela, which is grammatically singular, so torna matches it.

Because the Italian verb tornare usually means to return, to come back, or to go back.

Even though English turn and Italian tornare may look a little similar, they are not used the same way.

Examples:

• Torno domani. = I’m coming back tomorrow.
• La nave torna in porto. = The ship returns to port.

If you want turn in the sense of changing direction, Italian usually uses girare or voltare, depending on context.

Because tornare a is a normal way to say to return to a place.

So:

• tornare a casa = to return home
• tornare al porto = to return to the port
• tornare a questo ormeggio = to return to this mooring / berth

Here a is the preposition that goes with the destination.

Ormeggio can mean mooring, berth, or docking place, depending on context.

It refers to the place where a boat is tied up or kept.

So questo ormeggio could mean:

• this mooring
• this berth
• this docking spot

The most natural English translation depends on the situation.

Because ormeggio is a masculine singular noun, and the standard demonstrative before it is questo.

• questo ormeggio = this mooring

Elision with quest’ is mainly used before vowels with feminine singular nouns:

• quest’acqua = this water
• quest’isola = this island

So quest’ormeggio would not be standard here.

Because Italian normally uses a demonstrative like questo by itself, without a separate article.

So you say:

• questo libro = this book
• questa casa = this house
• questo ormeggio = this mooring

Unlike English, where this also stands alone without the, Italian does the same here. You do not say il questo ormeggio.

Because barca is a feminine singular noun, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la.

• la barca = the boat

Even though vela is also feminine, the article agrees with the main noun, which is barca.

Normally the fixed expression is barca a vela, with vela in the singular.

Italian often uses a singular noun in this kind of descriptive expression, even when the real object may involve more than one part.

So barca a vela is simply the standard way to say sailboat.
Barca a vele would sound unusual in ordinary usage.

Yes. The word order is completely normal:

• La barca a vela = subject
• torna = verb
• a questo ormeggio = destination/complement

Italian is fairly flexible with word order, but this sentence uses a straightforward neutral structure.

Yes, often you could. Torna and ritorna can both mean returns / comes back.

However:

• tornare is very common and often the more natural everyday choice
• ritornare can sound a bit more formal, emphatic, or stylistically marked in some contexts

So La barca a vela torna a questo ormeggio sounds perfectly natural.

Yes. With tornare a, the phrase mainly expresses the destination: return to this mooring.

It focuses on where the boat is going back to. Depending on context, English might phrase it as:

• returns to this mooring
• comes back to this berth
• goes back to this docking place

Italian uses a naturally here for the destination.