Sailing glossary english glossar

Abaft: anything located aft something else.(a schooners mainsl' is abaft its forsl')

Abeam: Direction at a right angle to the centerline of the boat.

About: Across the wind in relation to the bow. When a sailboat tacks into the wind to bring it from one side to the other, she is said to go about.

Adrift: Floating free. A boat which can not move by its own power.

Aloft: Above the deck, overhead on the mast or in the rigging.

Angle of attack: The angle of a sail in relation to the direction of the wind.

Angle of Heel: The degree of list a vessel has when underway.

Apparent wind: The difference between natural and movement generated wind.

Aspect Ratio: The relationship between the sails height (luff ) and length along the foot. High aspect ratio means a sail that is tall and narrow, low aspect ratio is a short, wide sail.

Astern: Backwards, somewhere behind the vessel, or towards or behind the stern.

Athwartships: From one side of a ship to the other.

Avast: A command to stop or cease what one is doing.

Awash: Water washing over. A boat when almost submerged.

B
Back stay: A cable supporting the mast, from stern to the top of the mast.

Bale:A fitting on the end of a spar, such as the boom, to which a line may be led.

Ballast: Weight below decks that keeps the boat upright.

Battens: Strips of wood or other materials used to support a sail or sail area.

Batten Down: Secure hatches and loose objects for approaching bad weather.

Barque: A sailing ship with three to five masts, all square-rigged except the after mast (last), which is fore-and-aft rigged.

Barquentine: Sailing ship with three or more masts. Square rigged on foremast, fore and aft rigged on the others.

Beachcomber: A sailor who does not want to work that loafs around ports.- To salvage goods found washed up on shores.

Beam: The widest dimension of a boat's hull.

Beam Reach: A point of sail where the boat is sailing at a right angle to the wind (wind coming from abeam).

Beat (also)Beating: To sail towards the wind by making a series of tacks. Sailing close hauled.

"Before the Wind": Sailing with the wind from astern, in the same direction the wind is blowing

Belay: To secure a line to, cleat, bollard, bitt, etc. - A command to stop or cease action.

Belaying Pin: A wood pin fitted into racks, around which lines can be belayed or secured.

Below: Beneath the decks, i.e., inside a cabin or in a hold.

Bermuda Rig: The most common sail plan, sails are tall triangular shape.

Bight: (knots) The part of a line between the ends. A loop in a line. - An indentation in the coastline larger than a bay.

Bilge: Hull area between the keel and the boats sides.

Bitter End: The last part of a rope or final link of chain. The end made fast to the vessel, as opposed to the "working end", which may be attached to an anchor, cleat, other vessel, etc.

Boat: Generic name for all water vessels. A boat is a small open vessel, compared to a ship that has decks and cabins.

Boatswain: Also bosun, Crew member who has immediate charge of all deck hands, oversees deck crew, maintenance and upkeep of the ship.

Bobstay: A stay underneath the bowsprit that counteracts the upward pull of the forestay.

Bollard: A large post on a wharf or pier and on the deck of a ship. for securing mooring lines.

Boom: A pole running at a right angle from the mast supporting the sails foot.

Boomkin: A Pole or spar that extends from the stern

Bosun's Chair: A seat attached to a halyard to raise and lower someone to work on the mast.

Bow Line: A docking line leading from the bow

Bowline: A knot use to form an eye or loop at the end of a rope

Braces: On square rigged ships, lines attached to the ends of each yard used to pivot (brace) the yards to trim the sails

Breakers: Waves breaking over rocks or shoals. A wave that approaches shallow water, causing the wave height to exceed the depth of the water it is in, causing a cresting wave with water tumbling down the front of it

Bridge: The location from which a ship is steered and controlled

Brig:A two-masted square rigged vessel. On the aft mast, there is also a gaff sail

Brigantine: A two-masted vessel with foremast square rigged, and mainmast fore and aft rigged

Brightwork: Varnished woodwork and/or polished metal

Bring About: To reverse or change directions, to turn around

Broach: The turning of a boat out of control, broadside to the wind or waves.

Broad Reach: A point of sail where the boat is sailing away from the wind, but not directly downwind with the sails let out nearly all the way

Bulkhead: A watertight vertical partition or wall which separates different compartments and adds strength to the hull

Bulwark: A railing around the deck of a boat to keep things from going overboard and the seas from coming aboard, the part of a ship's side that extends above the main deck to protect it against heavy weather.

Buoy: A floating anchored object used to mark the navigable limits of channels, sunken dangers, isolated rocks, etc.

"By the Lee": Sailing downwind with the wind blowing over the leeward side of the boat, increasing the possibility of an unexpected jibe

"By the Wind": Sailing close-hauled. Same as "on the wind"

C
Camber: The curvature of an object such as a sail, keel or deck

Capstan: A vertical revolving cylindrical device used for heaving in lines or anchors

Captain: The person in charge of a vessel and responsible for it and its occupants

Cable: A rope or chain made fast to the anchor. - A unit of distance, 1/10th of a nautical mile (608 ft.) or 100 fathoms

Caravel: Small trading vessel also used for exploration. Three-masted, usually square rigged on the two forward masts, and having a lateen rigged mizzen mast

Carrack: Three-masted trading vessel similar to the Caravel, but larger

Carrick Bend: A knot used to tie two lines together

Catboat: A sailboat rigged with one mast and one sail

Catspaw: A puff of wind on the water caused by a mass of cool air plunging down through warm surface air

Caulking: Forcing material such as oakum into the seams of planks on a deck or a boats sides to make them watertight

Celestial Navigation: To calculate your position using time and the position of celestial bodies

Centre board: A board that retracts horizontally into a chamber (well) built into the boats hull

Centre of buoyancy: The centre point of a boats floating ability

Centre of effort: The centre point of a sails energy producing area

Centre of lateral resistance: The epicentre of a boats ability to resist leeway

Centerline: Imaginary line running the length of a boat at the centre

Chief Mate: The officer second in command of a ship

Chine: An angle where the sides of a hull meet the bottom

Cleat: A fitting to which lines are made fast.

Clew: For a triangular sail, the aftmost corner.

Coamings: Built up sides around the cockpit that prevent water from coming in

Come About: To change tack when sailing windward

Centre board: A board that retracts horizontally into a boats hull, adjusting the depth of the keel

Dagger board: A type of centre board that adjusts vertically in the well

Day sailor: A smaller sailboat, not meant for overnight voyages

Dead Ahead: A position directly in front of the vessel

Dead Astern: A position directly aft or behind the vessel

Deadrise: The angle between the bottom of a boat and its widest beam. A vessel with a 0º deadrise has a flat bottom, high numbers indicate deep V shaped hulls

Deck: A covering over a compartment, hull or any part of a ship serving as a floor

Design Waterline (DWL):Also length waterline or load waterline (LWL) - The length of the boat where it meets the water when loaded to its designed capacity

Dinghy: A small open boat often used as tender and lifeboat for a larger craft

Displacement: the volume of water measured buy its weight, that a boat displaces as it floats

Displacement Hull: A hull that plows through the water, with little or no lift qualities displacing water equal to its own weight

"Distance Made Good": Distance traveled after correction for current, leeway and other errors not included in the original distance measurement.

Down haul: Adjusting the tension of a sail's luff

Draft: Distance between the waterline and the lowest part
of the keel or hull . The amount of bend in a sail's shape

Drogue: An object used to increase the drag of a boat to slow her down. Typically shaped like a parachute or cone opened underwater

Entrance: The area of a bow that first meets the water

Ensign: A nautical version of the national flag of a country usually flown at the stern -The rank of a officer equivalent to that of midshipman

Even keel :When a boat is floats evenly to its waterline, well balanced

Eye splice: (knots) Braiding the end of a line into itself to form a loop

"Eye of the wind": The direction that the wind is blowing from

"Fair Wind": Wind when it is favorable to the course being steered

Fairlead - A fitting used to guide a line in a particular direction without chafing

"Fall Off": To change direction so as to point farther away from the wind

Fathom: A unit of measurement relating to the depth of water or to the length of line; one fathom is 6 feet or 1.83 meters

Fetch: The distance that the wind travels over open water that determines the size of a wave, the longer the fetch, the higher the waves

Fid: A pointed tool used to separate strands of rope

Figurehead: An ornamental carved and painted figure on the stem of the vessel

Fin Keel: A fixed keel that is narrow and deeper than a full keel

Flare: The upward bulge or angle of a ships sides

Flotsam: Debris floating on the water surface

Following Sea: An overtaking sea (wind and waves) that comes from astern.

Forefoot: The point where the stem joins the forward end of the keel.

Fractional Rig: A design where the forestay (and its sail) does not go to the very top of the mast.

Freeboard: The sides of a boats hull above the waterline

"Full and By": Sailing as close to the wind as possible with all sails full and drawing

Fully battened: Sail battens that run the full horizontal length of the sail

Furl - to fold or roll a sail and secure it to its main support

G
Gaff: A spar that supports the head of a four sided fore-and-aft sail

Gaff Topsail: A triangular sail set over a gaff

Genoa: A large foresail or jib that overlaps the mainsail

Give-Way: To yield the right of way to another boat

Global Positioning System (GPS) Metod of using satellite signals to fix a position

Gooseneck: The fitting that connects the boom to the mast

Ground Swells: Long wave formations during calm or light air formed by waves running into shoals

Gunkholing: Cruising in shallow water and spending the nights in coves

Gunwale: (gun'l) Top edge of the sides of an open boat. (from gun wall)

Gybe: To change tack, sailing downwind (also Jibe)

Hanks: Rings or clips used to attach sails to stays

Hard Aground : A boat which has gone aground and cannot break free under her own power

Hard Chine: An abrupt intersection between the hull side and the hull bottom of a boat

Hawser: A heavy line or cable used for towing, mooring or anchoring

Head Sea: A sea which is traveling in the opposite direction to that of the boat

Head to Wind: Where the boat is pointed directly into the wind, sails luffing

Head Up: Change direction to point closer to the wind. The opposite of falling off

Headsail:A sail set forward of the foremast on the headstay

Headstay: The stay leading from the mast to the bow

Heave To: To stop a boat and maintain position by balancing rudder and sail to prevent forward movement

Heavy Seas: When the water has large or breaking waves

Heel: Leaning of a boat to one side in response to the wind.

Helm: The boat's directional controls, tiller or wheel of a boat.

Hike: Leaning out over the side of the boat to counteract heel

Hull Speed:The maximum speed a hull can achieve without planing

I
In Irons: A sailboat with its bow pointed directly into the wind, preventing the sails from filling properly and stopping the boat
J
Jam Cleat: A cleat designed to hold a line in place without slipping. It consists of two narrowing jaws with teeth in which the line is placed

Jenny: A genoa jib. A large jib that overlaps the mast, also Genny

Jetsam: Anything deliberately thrown overboard; debris, jettisoned items, floating at sea.

Jib: A triangular sail mounted on a stay from the stem or bowsprit to the mast.

Junk: A sailing vessel common in the Far East, has two or three masts carrying battened lugsails

K
Keel: The very bottom edge of a boat, the structural member that the hull is built on.

Ketch: A sailboat with two masts, a shorter mizzen mast is aft of the main mast

Knockabout: A type of schooner without a bowsprit

Knockdown: To be capsized by the wind or waves

Knot: A speed of one nautical mile (6,076 feet or or 1,852 meters) per hour - A method of attaching a rope or line to itself, another line or a fitting

L
Lateen: A triangular sail mounted on a spar along the sails luff.

Leach: The aft edge of a fore-and-aft sail.

Lee: The direction the wind is travelling

Lee boards: Boards, mounted on the sides of a boat to resist leeway

Leeward: The direction the wind is going, downwind. Opposite side of windward

Leeway: Distance a boat drifts off course due to wind

Lift: The energy generated by sail, hull or foils that moves a boat windward.

Load Water Line (LWL) - A line painted on the side of the vessel to which the vessel sinks when carrying its full load

Loose-footed: A sail attached to the boom at the tack and clew, but not along the foot, or a fore and aft sail which is set without a boom

Luff: The forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail

Luffing: To head into the wind, causing sails to flap and flutter

Lug or Lugsail: A four sided sail bent onto a yard

M
Main sail: (mainsl') The largest sail on a multiple sail boat

Main sheet: Line that controls the position of the mainsail

Make Fast:To attach a line to something so that it will not move

Marconi rig: Lightweight mast supported by stays and shrouds

Marlinspike: Pointed tool used for line work, for opening line strands for splicing, and especially for prying tight knots apart.

Mast: The vertical pole or spar that supports the boom and sails

Mast Step : The fitting in the bottom of the boat in which the bottom or heel of the mast sits

Mizzen: A small sail set behind the main sail

Multi-hull: A boat with more than one hull, catamaran, trimaran etc.

O
"Off the Wind": Sailing with the wind coming from the stern or quarter of the boat

"On the Wind": Sailing close hauled. Sailing toward the wind as much as possible with the wind coming from the bow

One-design: Any boat built to certain standards or rules so that is like all others in the same class

Out haul: An adjuster that tensions the sail's foot

Outrigger: A structure which extends outboard to suspend lines or nets over the water or small secondary hull

Overhangs: Hull areas that extend out over the water at the bow or stern

P
Painter: A line tied to the bow of a small boat for use in towing, securing or tying up

Peak: The upper corner of a four sided sail or top end of a gaff or spritsail

Planning: A boats ability to lift up from the water by diverting water under its hull

Port: The left side of the boat when you are looking forward

Point of sail: The angled position a sail is held to the wind

R
Reaching: Sailing across the wind, with the wind on the side of the boat

Reefing: Reducing the amount of sail area

Rig: The arrangement of a boat's mast, sails and spars

Rigging: The cables and lines that support or control a boat's rig

Roach: A curvature in the leach of a sail

Rudder: Underwater part of a boat used for steering

Run: The hulls underwater bottom near the stern

Running: Sailing with the wind blowing from astern. Sailing downwind

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