Salty old seadogs are a breed apart; hardy and tough, seemingly unfazed by the chaos around them. But, what are they talking about? There is a whole vocabulary around boats which seems to have been created to confuse landlubbers. Here are a few useful terms and translations.
- Heads = toilet
- Saloon = living room
- Cabin = bedroom
- Galley = kitchen
- Companionway = steps that lead from upper deck to inside boat
- Port = left
- Starboard = right
- Bow = pointy bit at the front of the boat
- Stern = wide bit at the back of the boat
- Mast = tall vertical pole in the middle of the boat
- Boom = horizontal beam below mainsail
- Shrouds = wire ropes supporting the mast
- Bilge = lowest point of the inner hull
- Washboard = broad thin plank to keep out seawater
- Freeboard = distance from waterline to upper deck
- Halyard = rope for hoisting and dropping sails
- Sheet = rope for trimming sails
- Gunwhale = upper edge of side of boat
- Tack = to turn the bow of the boat into and through the wind
- Gybe = to turn the stern of the boat across the wind
- Jib = small sail at the bow
- Genoa = large sail at the bow, coming back past the mast
Well done if you’ve made it this far – you’re nearly ready to tie a bowline in the aft cleat, take the spring line through the fairlead and make it off with a hitch on the forward pontoon cleat. 🙂