This article provides an overview of the most important sailing terms for beginners, including starboard, tack, and jib. Mastering these 30 essential terms will transform you from a landlubber to a skilled sailor. Jibing is similar to tacking but with the wind behind you, requiring the sail to switch from port to starboard with great power and speed.
Knowing basic nautical terms is vital for safety, effective communication, and mastering the art of boating and sailing. The top 100 sailing terms essential for any crew member cover basic language to complex terminology. Port: Facing forward, anything to the left of the boat.
Sailing terms beginning with the letter A include Abaft: Toward the stern of a boat and behind the middle of the boat. Abandon Ship: An instruction to leave the boat immediately. Keel Over: A term used to describe a boat tipping over on its side so far that it capsizes or turns turtle.
A sailing maneuver in which a boat turns its bow through the wind, from one side to the other, is often used to change direction or make full sail. Dinghy: Designed for quick trips between ship and shore. Draft: A big lightweight balloon-shaped sail for faster sailing off the wind. Spinnakers are used when running or reaching, sailing downwind.
Turning 90 degrees from one tack to the other is called going about or coming about. Turning around 180 degrees may involve the rather scary aspect of apparent wind. ARPA (Adrift): When two boats are facing in the same direction, side by side, at the same speed and position.
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What is fast cruising?
Officer Candidate School students line up in formation during “fast cruise” at Officer Training Command Newport, R.I., March 18, 2022. “Fast cruise” is conducted to test a candidate’s ability to perform in a physically demanding environment while receiving and executing a myriad of orders.
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What do Navy sailors yell?
Hooyah is the battle cry used in the United States Navy to build morale and signify verbal acknowledgment. It originated with special operations communities, especially the Navy SEALs, and was subsequently adopted by other Navy divisions.
It is comparable to Oorah in the United States Marine Corps and Hooah in the United States Army, the United States Air Force, and the United States Space Force.
- ^ “Hooyah Navy Chiefs”. Join Base Charleston jbcharleston.jb.mil. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
- ^ “Battle Cries”. Navy Times. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
- ^ “23 Terms Only US Marines Will Understand”. Military Times. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-12.
What is the nautical term for driving?
The action of driving the boat is probably most often called piloting the boat. You may also hear people say “steering the boat,” navigating the boat” or a lesser known “conning the boat. In that final case, you wouldn’t be called a conn. Instead, a conn is the action of controlling a ship’s movements at sea, which is typically used among members of the armed forces.
Also Read: How fast does the average boat depreciate?
Of course, the type of vessel makes a huge difference in what the act of driving the boat is called. If it’s a rowboat, you’ll be rowing the boat. If it’s a sailboat, you’ll be sailing the boat, or be called a sailor.
What is fast sailing?
Speed sailing is the art of sailing a craft as fast as possible over a predetermined route, and having its overall or peak speed recorded and accredited by a regulatory body. The term usually refers to sailing on water, even though sailing on land and ice is progressively faster because of the lower friction involved. The World Sailing Speed Record Council is the body authorized by the World Sailing to confirm speed records of sailing craft (boats or sailboards) on water (not on ice or land).
The craft used vary from single sailor windsurfers or kitesurfers, to multi-hulls with crews of fifteen people. Many short course record attempts are made with boats based on the classic proa boat layout. Recent developments include hulls that rely on hydrofoils or planing hulls, which allow the hull to lift out of the water, and thereby increases speed by reducing friction. An example of a multihull hydrofoil design is the Hydroptère, designed by Alain Thébault. The design is based on experience from a range of hydrofoil sailcraft that Thébault built in cooperation with the late Eric Tabarly since the 1990s. On 4 September 2009, l’Hydroptère broke the world record, sustaining a speed of 51.36 knots for 500m in 30 knots of wind. On 24 November 2012, Vestas Sailrocket 2 raised the bar to 65.45 knots, a record which still stands.
Throughout the 1970s, the speed sailing 500 meter and Nautical Mile records were dominated by large multihulls, as typified by the Crossbow and Crossbow II of Timothy Colman. This has changed since to smaller, very lightweight boats. The Yellow Pages Endeavour, a highly optimized one-way proa design using a rigid wingsail lost its decade old 1993 500m record to a windsurfer in 2004. This was followed by frequently changing records, with windsurfers holding the record through 2008, when it was taken by a succession of kitesurfers. In 2009, in a radical shift away from the tiny surfboard based craft, the trimaran Hydroptère, with a length of 18.28 meters and a displacement of 6.5 metric tons, took the 500m speed record back for the D class boats.
What is the nautical term for going forward?
Headway – the forward movement of a boat through the water. Heave-to – to back the jib and lash the tiller to leeward used in heavy weather to encourage the boat to lie quietly and to reduce headway. Heel – to lean over to one side.
What are some sailor sayings?
Common Phrases with a Nautical OriginLong Shot. An occurrence that would take a great deal of luck. … Flotsam and Jetsam. Odds and ends. … Tide Over. Make a small amount last until a larger amount is available. … Feeling Blue. … Taken Aback. … The Cut of His/Her Jib. … Pipe Down. … Toe the Line.
. This illustration by Fred Freeman depicts Derby Wharf in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 1800s. Many nautical terms derive from the Age of Sail—the period of time between the 16th and 19th centuries when masted ships ruled the seas.
1. Long Shot. An occurrence that would take a great deal of luck.
Early ships’ guns tended to be inaccurate. If a shot made impact from a great distance, or a “long shot,” it was considered out of the ordinary.
How do you go faster in sailing?
The techniques for good acceleration are very much boat dependant and understanding which are most effective for your class is important. However, as a rule of thumb, it’s impossible to accelerate if you are head to wind, which is why on the startline defending the gap to leeward is so important. You need that gap to bear away into to help build speed. The best point of sailing to build speed is on a reach; pulling the sails in on a closehauled course will take longer for the boat to accelerate, so you are aiming to bear away as much as you can in those final seconds before the start.
How you pull the sails in is also very important. For boats with jibs or headsails, it’s important for the jib to come in first before the mainsail, as it will help pull the bow off the wind without having to use too much rudder, which will act as a brake and slow you down. Be careful not to over-sheet the sails in your haste to get them in quickly. Doing so will cause the leeches to hook up and kill all speed and acceleration, leaving you dead in the water and usually pretty far back in the fleet before the race is even underway. It’s a really common mistake, so make sure you have a nice twist profile to the leech and slowly squeeze the sails on as the speed builds and you come up to a closehauled course.
In light winds especially, inducing a little leeward heel just before you head up will help the boat steer up into the wind without having to use as much rudder. Bringing the boat flat as you squeeze the last bit of sheet in will give a nice burst of acceleration forward. Hopefully, doing all of this correctly will see you off the startline at pace and with height.
What is fast for a boat?
To make things simple, we’ll define any powerboat that exceeds 70 MPHas a high-performance boat. These days, there are plenty of boats that can run more than 120 MPHand several models that—with enough horsepower—can top 180 MPH. It should go without saying, but still needs to be said, that the highest tier of performance boats take years of experience and a careful, methodical progression to learn to handle safely.
If your family owned a powerboat, there’s a good chance that you might end up owning one someday. Lifelong boat owners typically were exposed to the activity as children. To the outsider, the whole “powerboating thing” can seem intimidating, whereas those who grow up around boats have a hard-coded comfort level with all that boating entails.
Your best bet if you think a go-fast boat appeals to you? Get a ride in one. There are more than a few dealers around the country who can make that happen for you. If you like it, you’ll move forward. If not, move on.
What do sailors yell?
Sailor Slang – A Unique Way of Communication. Another interesting linguistic feature that emerged from the nautical world is sailor slang. Over the years spent on the sea, sailors have developed their own way of communicating. And that language was unknown to the ones who were not part of the crew. The phrases and nautical terms that they used were short and sweet, some of the examples are:
- “Aye Aye Captain!” – a sign of approval
- “Ahoy!” – sailors would use this exclamation among themselves to call out to each other
- “Land Ho!” – an exclamation that a sailor would make when they spotted the land
- “Matey” – mate, friend
- “Me” – referring to “my”
- “Ye” – referring to the pronoun “you”
- “Yo-ho-ho…and a bottle of rum!” – the first part refers to sailors’ laughter and the second one, well, we could say that rum was their favorite beverage.
Sailor slang was highly popularized by the eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Jack Sparrow is an example of a real cap’n (captain) who loved his sailing ship Black Pearl more than his life and a man who gave his life to the sea. What a great example for a modern sailor, huh? Aside from his rum obsession and occasional cowardness, he was quite successful in his job. We are sure that you already quote him on a daily basis, but we will mention a few of his epic sailor quotes:
- “Why is the rum always gone?”
- “Hide the rum!”
- “Wherever we want to go, we go… that’s what a ship is, you know.”
- “The seas may be rough, but I am the Captain! No matter how difficult, I will always prevail.”
What is the nautical term for speed?
The term “knot”, in reference to currents, is defined as one nautical mile per hour and is used to measure speed. A nautical mile is slightly more than a standard mile.
1 nautical mile = 1.15 miles = 1.85 kilometers1 knot = 1.15 miles per hour = 1.85 kilometers per hour1 knot = 20.251969 inches per second = 51.44 centimeters per second.
The term knot dates from the 17thCentury, when sailors measured the speed of their ship by the use of a device called a “common log.” This device was a coil of rope with uniformly spaced knots tied in it, attached to a piece of wood shaped like a slice of pie. The piece of wood was lowered from the back of the ship and allowed to float behind it. The line was allowed to pay out freely from the coil as the piece of wood fell behind the ship for a specific amount of time. When the specified time had passed, the line was pulled in and the number of knots on the rope between the ship and the wood were counted. The speed of the ship was said to be the number of knots counted (Bowditch, 1984).
What is the fastest sailing position?
When the boat is sailing across the wind, with the wind coming directly over either side (or the ‘beam’) of the boat, so you are at right angles to the wind on either a port or starboard tack, then this is known as a ‘Beam Reach’. This is the fastest and easiest point of sail.
When the boat is sailing at a broad angle off the wind (but not directly downwind) then your sailboat is on the point of sail known as a ‘broad reach’. You will be heading downwind a bit more, as the wind will be behind you at an angle. Your sails will be let out slightly, a bit more eased away from the boat.
Sailing on this point of sail – ‘close-hauled’ – you are sailing as close to the wind as you can get! You sails will need to trimmed tightly, and this is a tricky point of sail to get right as it takes skill to not point the boat into the wind and lose power!
Can sailboats go fast?
The Extreme 40 catamaran can sail at 35 knots (65km/h; 40mph) in 20–25-knot (37–46km/h; 23–29mph) winds. The high-performance International C-Class Catamaran can sail at twice the speed of the wind.
There are many varieties of sailing hydrofoils. Monohull examples include the International Moth, Laser, and AC75. America’s Cup catamarans have used hydrofoils, since 2013. Other foiling catamarans include, A-Class, C-Class, Nacra 17, Nacra F20, and GC32.
In 2009, hydrofoil trimaran, Hydroptère, set the world speed sailing record on water at 50.17 knots (92.9km/h), sailing at about 1.7 times the speed of the wind. In late 2012, Vestas Sailrocket 2 achieved a new outright world speed record of 65.45 knots (121.2km/h) on water, at around 2.5 times the speed of the wind.
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