Chapter - 01

Names And Terms; Types And Rigs Of Boats

Landsmen's terms grate hard sometimes on the ear of one trained to speak the language of the sea, who thinks naturally in nautical terms. When the guest who unnecessarily remarks that he doesn't know "the front from the back" of the boat, goes "downstairs" into what he is pleased to call the "kitchen" and adds insult to injury by calling the chart a "map," the boatman's reaction must be akin to that of the well-bred English professor who must listen to "ain'ts" and "he don'ts" hurled with reckless abandon into his learned conversation.

How many times have you heard a boatman, in describing his boat to a friend, remark that "she made 10 knots per hour on a measured mile," or perhaps, that his run from port to port was a distance of 12 knots? Often, no doubt.

As a matter of fact, a strict interpretation of his terms would be the equivalent of "she made 10 nautical miles per hour per hour." You see, the knot is a measure of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour. Similarly, the second statement is not according to the best usage. The speaker should have said "12 nautical miles" because the knot isn't a measure of distance, in this sense.

Landsmen are not the only offenders in the use of incorrect nautical terminology as our first reference to knots and miles shows. Few persons speak absolutely pure English—few are always precisely right in their seafaring language. The words carline and beam are often used interchangeably by men with a broad background of nautical knowledge, yet a distinction could be drawn in their meanings.

Within the limits of our space here, we hope to cover just as many as possible of the more common terms used aboard boats. We do not pretend to offer verbatim definitions as might be taken from a dictionary. Rather the sense will be condensed into the briefest possible terms for the benefit of those to whom sea language is still a jargon. This is done at the risk of being taken to task by hairsplitting "sea lawyers" who might feel that brevity leaves the explanation vague. Glossaries are available to those who wish precise, long-winded definitions.

Bow And Stern; Port And Starboard

The landsman guest previously referred to might have incurred less of his host's displeasure had he called the front and back of the boat, the bow and stern, respectively. Port and starboard (starb'd) are terms in constant use—port designating the left; starboard, the right side, facing the bow or, to express it otherwise, facing forward. Turning around and facing the stern, we look aft. The bow is the fore part of the boat, the stern the after part. When one point on the boat is further aft than another it is said to be abaft. Thus we might say that the deckhouse is abaft the main cabin. When an object lies on a line parallel to the keel we refer to it as fore-and-aft, as distinguished from athwartships, which is at right angles to the keel line. Planks in a deck run fore and aft; the beams supporting deck planks run athwartships.

The term amidships has a double meaning. In one sense, it refers to an object in the line of the keel, midway between the sides, as an engine is mounted amidships in the centerline over the keel. Often, however, it relates to something mid-way between bow and stern. The galley, for example, might be located amidships, though off to the port or starboard side. The midship section would be the view of a boat presented by cutting it transversely through the middle.

To express the idea upward, overhead, or above the deck, one says aloft. Below means below deck. A seaman goes aloft in the rigging, below to his berth in the cabin.

We never say that a person is on or in a boat—rather, he is aboard, though on board is an alternate expression. Inboard and outboard draw a distinction between objects near or toward amidships and those which are out from the boat, away from the centerline. Inboard engines are those permanently installed within the hull; out-boards being temporarily attached at the stern, outside the hull.

Points Around The Boat

To convey the idea opposite or at right angles, we say abreast. An object at right angles to the centerline (keel) of the boat is abeam. If we draw ahead to a point where that object is midway between its position abeam and another directly astern, then it is broad on the quarter, starboard or port as the case may be. Dead ahead, of course, refers to any point which the boat is approaching directly on a straight course. Midway between dead ahead and a point abeam, an object is broad on the bow (port or starboard).

To express the direction of another vessel or any object relative to our position we say it bears so-and-so. Directions through 360 degrees around the horizon are divided into 32 points. Each point or direction is named. Thus a lighthouse might be said to ' bear two points abaft the starboard beam, broad on the port bow, etc.

Windward means toward the wind, the direction from which the wind blows; leeward, away from the wind, or the direction toward which the wind blows. The lee side of a boat or island is protected; the windward or weather side is exposed, unprotected. Note, however, that while one runs into the lee of an island or point for an anchorage protected from the wind, a lee shore refers to a shore line to leeward of a vessel, consequently a dangerous one exposed to the wind. While this may seem confusing at first, the logic of it is apparent with a little thought.

Some of the common terms by which the dimensions of a vessel and characteristics of her design are expressed are obvious in their meanings. Others baffle the tyro. The length of a boat is often given in two dimensions: on the waterline (W. L.), the meaning of which is apparent; and overall (O.A.), measuring from the fore part of the stem to the after part of the stern. The breadth of a vessel is its beam; draft, the depth of water required to float it. This is not to be confused with the term depth as applied to larger vessels,. which is measured vertically inside the hull from deck to bottom or floors. Headroom, in a small boat, is the vertical space between floor boards or deck and the cabin or canopy top, or other overhead structure.

Sheer, Flare And Flam

Sheer is the term properly used to designate the curve or sweep of the deck of a vessel. The side planking of a boat between the waterline and deck or rail is called the topsides. If they are drawn in toward the centerline away from a perpendicular, as they often do at the stern of a boat, they are said to tumble home. Forward they are more likely to incline outward to make the bow more buoyant and keep the hull dry by throwing spray aside. This is flare. Flam is that part of the flare just below the deck. The height of a boat's topsides from waterline to deck is called the freeboard. The significance of the term deadrise can be appreciated by visualizing a section transversely across a hull. If the bottom planking were flat, extending horizontally from the keel, there would be no deadrise.
 
In a round or vee bottom boat, when the bottom rises at an angle to such a horizontal line, the amount of rise is the deadrise.

The bilge is the turn of a boat's hull just below the waterline. Bilge water accumulates in the bilges, the deepest part of the hull inside along the keel. Aft where the lines converge toward the stern, under the overhang is the counter. The lines converging toward the stern post are called the boat's run. The buttock is the rounding part of a boat's stern; buttock lines, drawn by the architect, may be visualized if one pictures longitudinal saw cuts vertically through a boat's planking at a distance from the keel, parallel to the plane of stem and keel.

Parts Of The Hull

We have been talking about the hull, but haven't defined it. This term refers generally to the principal structure of the boat whereas cabins, deckhouses, etc., built above the deck are referred to as the superstructure. The main longitudinal timber in a hull, first laid in construction, is the keel. When another timber is fastened along the top of the keel to strengthen it, or as a necessary part of the construction, this is the keelson, sometimes apron. One-piece timbers running the full length of the keel are not always available. In this case, shorter pieces are bevelled and bolted together in a joint called a scarph. Deadwood, in small boats, is usually the solid timber above the keel at the stern. The propeller post stands vertically behind the deadwood, is joined to it and also to the keel.

The frame is the skeleton of a hull, comprising its principal structural members. The transverse members to which the planking is fastened are called frames—in some instances ribs, though some con- tend that a boat has frames, an animal ribs. The stem is one of the main frame members, at the bow. When the stern is shaped like the bow, drawing to a point as in a canoe, the boat is a double-ender. The transom type of stern is more common.

Knees reinforce the joints between members butting or intersecting at or near a right angle. Clamps and shelves are the longitudinal members joining the frames on which the deck beams rest. Misunderstanding often exists in connection with the use of the term floor. A floor in boat construction is one of the transverse frame members tying the lower ends of frames together at the keel. It has nothing to do with the decking. Limber holes are cut in the lower edge of frames to allow bilge water to flow into the deepest part of the hull from which point it can be pumped out.

Planks are applied to the outside of frames in constructing the hull, each continuous line of planks from bow to stern being called a stroke. If short planks are used in one strake, the ends are butted and joined on butt blocks. The lowest strake, next to the keel, is called the gar-board. Strakes between the bottom and topsides are called wales, and the gunwale (pronounced gun'l) is the upper part of the sheer strake or top plank of the topsides. When the topsides are carried above the deck, they are called bulwarks; the top of the bulwarks, the rail. The taffrail is the rail at the stern, furthest aft. Spaces between planks are called seams; to make them watertight, these are caulked by rolling or driving cotton into them (oakum in large boats) after which the seams are payed (filled) with white lead or seam composition.

 
Frame members such as the keel and stem are rabbetted to receive the edges and ends of planks. This rabbet is merely a longitudinal recess or cut into the wood of proper size to take the plank. Plankends at the stem and stern are the hood ends. We have already referred, in passing, to beams and carlines. Deck beams are the thwartship members which carry the decks; carlines, properly, are fore-and-aft timbers placed between the deck beams.

Vertical partitions, corresponding to the walls in a house, in a boat are called bulkheads. Scuppers are holes permitting water to drain overboard from decks and cockpits, the latter of course being the open space outside the cabins and deckhouses, not decked over flush. Flush decks are unbroken by either cockpits or deck erections such as the cabin or other houses.

Coamings (often misspelled combings, probably through confusion with the word comber, which is the name for a long curling wave) are vertical members around cockpits, hatches, etc., to prevent water on deck from running below. Deck openings are commonly referred to as hatches. Companion ladders are stairways or steps leading below from the deck. These are also referred to as companionways.

Ceiling Is Not Overhead

Another misunderstood term is ceiling. For this the landsman would be inclined to look overhead; as a matter of fact, this is actually a light sheathing of staving or planking applied to the inside of frames, for strength and interior finish.

On deck, lines are made fast to cleats or bitts {samson posts) and led through chocks, either open or closed, to reduce chafing. In larger craft hawse pipes are often provided in the bow through which the anchor chain runs, and into which the anchor is hauled.

The forecastle (pronounced fo'c's'l), if any small boat may properly be said to have one, is the compartment furtherest forward, in the bow. In olden days, the forecastle head was an elevated structure forward, providing a platform from which men could fight. As construed today, it generally is considered to mean the crew's quarters forward.

Berths and bunks are the seagoing names for beds aboard a boat. Lockers are closets or chests to provide space for stowage. Afloat one does not pack or put away; he stows.

When a vessel is hauled out of the water she is shored up with supports to hold her upright. If she is not supported properly, sc that she is held amidships while bow and stern settle, the boat will assume a shape described as hogged.

Never Give Steering Orders By Using The Word Helm

Helm is an obsolete term relating to the tiller, by which some sailboats are steered. More loosely, the term covers a wheel aboard a motor boat or any other method of steering. In the old days, the command port your helm meant put the tiller to port, thus throwing the rudder and the boat's head to starboard. Universal practise today dictates the command right rudder to carry the obvious meaning, left rudder the opposite. This eliminates much confusion.

Compasses are mounted near the helmsman's position, in boxes or other protective casings which are known as binnacles. Compasses are swung in gimbals, or pivoted rings, which permit the compass bowl and card to remain level regardless of the boat's motion. To enable the helmsman at the wheel to steer a compass course, a lubber line is painted on the inner side of the compass bowl to indicate the boat's bow.

We've spent considerable time getting familiar with the proper names for various parts of the boat and its construction, so let's pass to a consideration of more general terms dealing with the action and behavior of boats, the handling of lines and anchors, the action of water, navigational terms, etc.

When a boat moves through the water she is said to be under way (or weigh). According to the Pilot Rules she is under way when not aground, at anchor, or made fast to the shore. The direction in which she is moving may be made more specific by stating that she makes headway (when moving forward), sternway (backward), or leeway (when she is being set off her course by the wind). The track or disturbance which she leaves in the water as a result of her movement is called the wake. When she is not made fast to the bottom, shore, a dock or any other fixed object, she is said to be adrift. She grounds when she touches bottom, and is then aground.

Trim relates to the way in which a boat floats in the water. When she floats properly as designed, she is on an even keel, but if inclined to port or starboard she lists. Heel (not keel) conveys the same idea as list, that is, a sidewise inclination from the vertical. If she is too heavily loaded forward, she trims by the head, whereas if her draft is greater than normal aft, she trims by the stern.

A stiff vessel returns quickly to her normal upright position; if she rolls in a seaway without quick action or sudden movement, her roll is easy. When a boat's center of gravity is too high and stability low, she is tender; crank conveys the same idea. Sidewise motion in a seaway is called roll; while the vertical motion as the head rises and falls in the waves is pitch. Quick upward motion in pitching is scending. She yaws when she runs off her course as a vessel might if she didn't steer properly in a following sea. If she yaws too widely and is thrown broadside into the trough of the sea (between crests of the waves and parallel with them) she broaches to, a situation which should always be carefully avoided. When subjected to heavy strains in working through a seaway, a vessel is said to labor.

A boat scuds when she runs before a gale; is driven when she is pressed hard with much sail. A ship may capsize without foundering —in the first instance she turns over; in the latter she is overwhelmed by a heavy sea, fills and sinks. Before she is reduced to such straits, the wise skipper heaves to, in order to enable a vessel to ride the seas more comfortably, generally head to the wind, or near it, with shortened sail and possibly lying to a sea anchor which prevents the head from falling off from the wind. The sea anchor does not go to the bottom, merely serves as a drag.

Ropes Are Lines On Boats

Generally speaking, the word rope is used but little aboard a boat, being referred to rather as line. Hawsers are heavy lines, in common use on larger vessels, but rarely aboard small pleasure craft. Heaving lines are light lines with a knot or weight at the end which helps to carry them when thrown from one boat to another or to a dock. Heave is the nautical term for throw. The knot which encloses the weight at the end of a heaving line is a monkey's fist. Painters are lines at the bow of the boat for the purpose of towing or making fast. Thus dinghies are usually equipped with painters. The line by which a boat is made fast to her mooring is called a pennant. Spring lines are among those used at docks, leading from the bow aft to the dock or from the stern forward to the dock, to prevent the boat from moving ahead or astern.

The bitter end of a line is the extreme end, the end made fast to a bin when all line is paid out. Belay has a double meaning. A line is belayed when it is made fast; as a command it signifies stop, cease. Ends of lines are whipped when twine is wrapped about them to prevent the strands from untwisting. Ragged ends of lines are said to be fagged. When a line is made fast with light line or twine to another line or any other object, it is seized. Joining two ends to make one continuous line by tucking strands under without knotting is called splicing. When an end is worked back into the line itself to form a loop, it is called an eye-splice. One does not tie a line to another aboard a boat; he bends it on. Line is coiled down on deck, each complete turn being a fake or flake.

When a line is let out, one pays it out; it is cast off when let go. Blocks (pulleys) are provided with sheaves. These are the wheels or rollers of the block and the term is pronounced as though spelled shiv. When a line is passed through a block or hole it is reeved; render indicates that it passes freely through the block or hole. If a strain is put on a line heavy enough to break it, then it parts. Lines have standing parts and hauling parts; the standing part being the fixed part, that is, the one which is made fast; the hauling part, that part of a tackle which is hauled upon. A bight is any part within the ends of a line, that is to say, a bend. Lines are foul when tangled, clear when in order ready to run.

Ground tackle is a general term embracing anchors, lines, etc., used in anchoring. On small boats, the anchor line is a rode. Moorings are the permanent anchorages at which boats lie, consisting of a heavy anchor (usually mushroom type), chain, shackles, swivels, a mooring buoy, and pennant of manila or wire rope. Larger vessels are said to be moored when lying with two anchors down. They may also be moored to piers when made fast with stout mooring lines. Grapnels are light anchors with claw-like hooks or prongs. A kedge is a light anchor often used for getting off a shoal. The kedge is carried out in the dinghy and power to haul the boat off is then applied either by man power or winch (a device for raising the anchor). This is called k edging. Warping consists of turning a boat at a dock by applying power to lines fast to the dock. Bowers are heavy anchors carried forward; the heavier one, the best bower. Years ago sheet anchors, the heaviest aboard, were carried in the waist of a ship (amidships) for emergencies. Stream anchors are heavier than kedges, lighter than bowers.

Describing Water Movements

Various terms are used to describe specific water movements or conditions of the surface. Rips are short, steep waves caused by the meeting or crossing of currents. The confused water action found at places where tidal currents meet is also called a chop. Sea is a general term often used to describe waves and water action on the surface but, properly, it should be applied only to waves produced by the wind. Swell is the long heavy undulation of the surface resulting from disturbances elsewhere on the sea. Surf is produced when waves leave deep water, breaking on the shore as the crests curl over. A following sea is one which comes up from astern, running in the same direction as the boat's course; a head sea is just the opposite, where the progress of the waves is against that of the boat, the boat meeting them bow on. Cross seas are confused and irregular.

The word tide has probably been misused as much as any nautical term, so much so that its misuse has come to be accepted without question as a matter of course. Commonly it has been used to describe the inflow and outflow of water caused by the gravitational influence of the moon and sun. Better usage would restrict the term to the vertical rise and fall of water produced by these causes. Current is the proper term for a horizontal flow of water. Thus a current resulting from tidal influences is a tidal current. It is better to say two-knot current than two-knot tide.

The incoming tidal current running toward shore is the flood; the retreating current flowing away from the land is the ebb. The direction in which the current flows is the set; drift, its velocity. (The amount of leeway a vessel makes is also called its drift.) Slack is the period between flood and ebb when the current is not flowing; stand the period when no rise or fall in tide level is apparent.

Spring tides are those produced when the moon is new or full and have a greater range (difference between the heights of high and low water) than average. Neap tides, caused when the positions of sun and moon relative to the earth are such as to offset each other in effect, have a smaller range than average. Too often every huge wave is referred to as a tidal wave. Generally, it is used in the wrong sense, as this term should be limited to waves resulting from tidal action, rather than indiscriminately applied to the great waves which build up as a result of wind storms.

Piloting Terms

Range, mentioned above, is also a navigational term and is used when two or more objects are brought into line to indicate a safe course. The distinction between knots and miles has already been made. A fathom is six feet; this is a measure of depth. One heaves a lead to determine depth, the process being known as sounding. The lead (a weight at the end of the lead line) is armed by greasing the bottom with tallow or some other sticky substance to bring up a sample at the bottom. In navigation, one plots a course on the chart (never map), takes bearings to determine his position {fix), takes a departure to establish an exact point from which to commence his dead reckoning (calculation of courses and distances sailed), has an offing when he is well to seaward, though yet in sight of land.

Entries are made in a log (book) to record all events during a cruise; the patent log is an instrument to record distance travelled. One raises a light or landmark when it first becomes visible, makes a landfall when land is first sighted coming in from sea. Passage is generally construed to mean a run from port to port; voyage includes both the outward and homeward passage. Watches are four-hour periods of duty aboard ship; dog watches are two-hour periods between 4:00 and 8 :00 P.M. A period of duty at the wheel is a trick.

When any part of the vessel's gear or equipment breaks or gives way, it carries away; an object goes by the board when it goes overboard. If a boat is stove (planking broken in from outside) the boat springs a leak, or makes water. When water is dipped out of a small boat, the process is called bailing.

By general usage, the term Corinthian has come to mean amateur sailor. A boat is ship-shape when everything is in good order, well found if well equipped. One swabs the deck when he washes it down with a mop (called a swab aboard ship). Clean is a term applied, not to a snip's condition, but rather to her lines. If the lines are fine, so that she slips through the water with little disturbance, the lines are clean.

The term clear has many meanings. Before leaving for a foreign port, a ship must be cleared through the Customs authorities. She clears the land when she leaves it, clears a shoal when she passes it safely. The bilges may be cleared of water by pumping it out. Tangled {foul) lines are cleared by straightening them out and getting them ready for use.

The meaning of the word lay also depends on its usage. One lays aft, when he goes to the stern of the boat; lays down the lines of a boat full size before building; lays up the boat when putting her out of commission. A vessel lays her course if, in sailing, she can make her objective without tacking. When an oarsman stops rowing, he lays on his oars. Lay to is synonymous with heave to, previously defined.

A boat stands by when she remains with another vessel prepared to give her assistance if necessary. When used as a command, stand by means to be prepared to carry out an order. A vessel is said to hail from her home port. One hails a vessel at sea to get her attention, speaks her when communicating with her.

Sailing Terms

Space does not permit a long discussion of sails, wind, and the rigs of vessels, but a few of the more common terms will be touched on briefly. Wind veers when it shifts, changing its direction clockwise; it backs when it shifts in a counter-clockwise direction. Wind changing from abeam forward, hauls; from abeam aft, veers. A vessel is sailing off the wind when her sheets (lines controlling the sail, not the sail itself) are slacked off {eased). She is on the wind when sailing close-hauled, as close to the wind as possible. When before the wind, the wind comes from aft and is called a fair, free or leading wind. A following wind blows in the direction of the ship's course. Sailing down the wind, a vessel sails to leeward. A beam wind obviously is one which blows athwart the boat's course. An offshore wind blows from the land; an onshore wind, toward it.

Canvas is a general term for a boat's sails. Sails draw when they fill with the wind providing power to drive the boat through the water. One makes sail when the sails are set; shortens sail when the amount of sail set is reduced; reefs by partly lowering the sail and securing it so that its area is reduced; dowses it when it is lowered quickly; furls it when it is rolled up and secured to a boom or yard.

A sailboat tacks by sailing in a zig-zag direction to make good a course directly into the wind. This is also called beating. If the wind comes from the starboard side, she is on the starboard tack; from the port side, the port tack. Tacking, she goes about. If she attempts to tack and the head does not fall off on the other tack she is caught in (or misses) stays, or is said to be in irons. When preparing to tack the order is given, ready about; then, as the helmsman puts the helm over to change the boat's course, hard alee. Wearing ship is another means of bringing a vessel on the other tack, but in this case she does it by changing course so that the wind is brought astern, from one side to the other. As the boom swings from one side to the other as the wind comes dead aft in this maneuver (sometimes it occurs accidentally when running before the wind) she jibes.

When the wind comes from abeam or forward of the beam, the boat is reaching; running when she is sailing dead before the wind. A vessel is sailing free when the wind is well aft; full and by or close hauled when all sails are drawing and her course is as close to the wind as she can sail. She is pinched when she is brought so close to the wind that the sails shiver. A vessel is luffed when she is brought up into the wind so as to spill some of it out of the sail, thus relieving the pressure and easing her. Sailing before the wind, sails are sometimes set on opposite sides of the boat; this is called wing and wing. One boat blankets another when, being just to windward, she takes the wind out of the other's sails. She outfoots another by sailing faster, outpoints her by sailing closer to the wind. The term spars is used generally to cover masts, booms, gaffs, yards, etc. Masts, of course, are the principal vertical spars from which sails are set. They are stepped when set in position, raked when the mast is not plumb, but inclined aft at an angle. Gaffs are spars supporting the head (upper edge) of a fore-and-aft sail. Triangular sails requiring no gaff, in which the head of the sail is a point, are Marconi sails (jib-headed). Yards are the horizontal spars supporting the head of square sails. The foot (lower edge) of fore-and-aft sails is usually attached to a boom. If no boom is used, or if the sail is not laced or otherwise secured to it, the sail is loose-footed. The luff is the forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail; the leach the after edge. Roach in a sail is curvature of its edge. The peak is the upper aft corner of a gaff-rigged sail; the tack, the lower forward corner; the clew, the lower aft corner; the throat, the forward part of the head. Bolt rope is the rope sewed around the edge of a sail to reinforce it. Battens (thin, flat wooden strips) are placed in pockets along the leach of a sail to flatten the edge and give it shape.

Gear is the general term for miscellaneous lines, spars, sails and similar items. Rigging refers to all the lines aboard a boat, used in connection with setting and handling sail. Lines or wire staying the masts comprise the standing rigging; the lines used in setting and furling sails, the running rigging. Halyards are lines or tackles used to hoist sails; shrouds stay the mast at the sides. The wire ropes commonly used to support the mast from a point forward are called stays. Those supporting the mast from aft are backstays. When the slack in stays and shrouds is taken up, the rigging is said to be set up.

One could go on indefinitely defining a multitude of terms that constitute the vernacular of the sea, but space forbids. What has been covered here will serve as a framework. As the novice gains experience in sailing and handling boats, his vocabulary will broaden proportionately and naturally. We hope, however, that his enthusiasm for the subject will not cause him to toss indiscriminate Avasts, Ahoys and Belays into every conceivable nook and corner of his conversation. The natural, proper use of correct terms is much to be desired; strained efforts to affect a salty lingo are conspicuously inappropriate.

Parts Of Sailing And Rowing Craft

What's the difference between a sheer plank and the plank sheer? Do the terms carvel and clinker have any special significance to you? Do you know the distinction between a keel and a keelson?

In the first part of this chapter on nautical terms, we have explained the meaning of many of the more common nautical terms. In it special emphasis was laid on those which should be part of every motor boatman's vocabulary, including correct terminology applying to various parts of a motor boat.

Sailing and rowing craft, too, have their special nomenclature, some of the terms seldom being encountered by the motor boatman not concerned with sailing. The terms applicable to sailing and rowing craft are of particular interest to men going into the Navy, Coast Guard and other branches of the service. Knowledge of the correct technical terms to use in connection with the whaleboats, cutters, dinghies, wherries and other small craft they will handle will stand them in good stead.

There must of necessity be some overlapping in the terms discussed here and those covered in the foregoing pages. Certain parts are common to all types of boat, whether propelled by motor, sail or oars. In such cases some repetition is unavoidable.

To begin at the logical beginning, let's consider some of the terms identified with the boat's hull construction. The keel is the principal frame member of the boat, usually the first one laid when construction is begun. Almost invariably it is on the outside of the hull, though in cases (as in some P.T. boats) the keel is inside. Often an extra piece is fastened to the bottom of the main keel to protect it. This is a false keel.

Ordinarily a timber or stringer, bolted inside as a reinforcing member to the keel, is called a keelson (pronounced kelson). Between the keel and keelson, blocks are fitted athwartship (at right angles to the fore and aft centerline of the keel). These blocks are called filling pieces.

Keel blocks are used to support the keel of a boat during construction. When boats are stowed in cradles aboard a vessel, a keel stop is fitted at the after end of the keel to locate the boat in a fore and aft position on the cradle. The keel stop is a small metal fitting.

A stfm is common to all boats with the conventional type of bow, whereas the square-nosed pram or punt type has a bow resembling its square stern. Flat planking across the stern is called the transom, but in a doubleender the stern construction is pointed, resembling the conventional bow. The stem is a vertical member set up on the forward end of the keel. It is commonly of white oak in wooden construction and may be straight or curved, depending on the shape desired. It is plumb if set up perpendicular to the water-line, but is often raked at an angle for better appearance. Ring bolts, having a ring through the eye of the bolt, are fitted through the stems of many small boats, and often at the stern as well.

Deadwood is solid timber placed on the keel to connect the end timbers. Most of it is found at the stern of a boat, though it may also be used forward, in which case it may take the form of a stem heel. Timbers connecting the stem knee to the keel are often called sole pieces. An apron (sometimes called stemson) is an inner stem fitted abaft (behind) the stem to reinforce it. It gives added surface on which the hood ends of the planking can land, the hood ends being those ends which fit into the rabbet, cut into the stem to receive them.
Stem bands of metal are usually fitted on the forward edge of the stem for protection. The spars which project out over the bow on sailing craft to take the stays from which jibs and other head sails are set, are called bowsprits. Breast hooks are reinforcing knees set horizontally behind the stem.

Various kinds of knees are used throughout the hull construction to connect members joined at an angle to each other. They may be of metal, though often a natural growth of wood is selected—hackmatack, for example—in which the grain runs in the desired shape for maximum strength. There are bosom knees and carling knees, dagger knees and hanging knees, lodging knees, panting knees, thwart knees, etc., each designating the special part of construction in which it is employed, or its relative position.

 
Going aft, now to the stern of the boat, we have horn timbers, used to fasten the shaft log to the transom knee. The transom has already been defined. Shaft logs are timbers between keel and deadwood through which the propeller shaft (if the boat is motor driven) passes. At the stern the principal vertical member is called the stern post, set up on the after end of the keel or shaft log, to which it is attached by the stern knee. A stern hook is not a hook at all but, in a double-ended boat, is that reinforcing member which corresponds to the breast hook at the bow. Breast hooks at the stern are also called crutches. If the boat has a transom stern, she would have quarter knees at each side of the transom instead of the one stern hook.

Frames are the timbers set up on the keel, providing the skeleton over which the planking is laid. The frames may be curved as in a round bottom boat or straight as in certain types of V-bottom design. Sometimes they are sawn to shape; otherwise they are steam bent.

Floors, nautically speaking, are not laid as in a house to be walked upon. In a boat they are important transverse structural members, tying together the keel and the lower ends of the frames.

To Be Able To Nome All Parts Of A Boat Is Important

The gunwale (pronounced gun'l) of an open boat is the upper edge of the side. Inwales are the longitudinal members fastened inside a canoe or small boat along the gunwales. Sometimes they are referred to as clamps. The ends of deck beams, on which decking is laid, rest upon the clamps, although a horizontal shelf may be used above the clamp. Then deck beams rest upon the shelf.

Sometimes boatmen speak of deck or cabin carlines when they really mean beams. The beams run thwart ships (at right angles to a center line passing through the keel) whereas carlines, or carlings, are short pieces of timber running fore and aft (lengthwise, parallel to the keel) between deck beams. Carlines, for example, would be found at the port and starboard sides of hatch openings in a deck.

Stringers are longitudinal members fastened inside the hull for additional structural strength. If they run along the bilge (the turn of the hull below the waterline) they are called bilge stringers. There are other types.

Open boats often have a finishing piece which runs along the gunwale, lying on top of the clamp or inwale and covering the top edge of the planking and heads of frames. This is a capping. In many small boats, capping is omitted, so that there is nothing to catch dirt and water when the boat is turned over to be emptied instead of bailing. Such a boat would be said to have open gunwales.

Planking, laid over the outside of frames in strokes (continuous narrow lengths from stem to stern), provides the outer shell of the hull, which is the general term describing the main structure of the boat. Planking is called carvel if the surface finishes smooth with caulked seams between the strakes to make the hull watertight. It is clinker or lapstrake if the successive strakes lap each other as the clapboards of a house are lapped. Hulls are sometimes double planked, in which case there is commonly an inner skin or layer of planking laid diagonal to the keel, and an outer skin fore and aft, with waterproof glue, or glue and fabric, between layers. Sometimes the two layers of planking are run diagonally at an angle of forty-five degrees from keel to gunwale, planks of the two layers being at right angles to each other. Frames are omitted in this type of construction.

Technical terms designating parts used in the construction of a double-ended whaleboat. A flagstaff and awning stanchion may be set up abaft the fore matt. And also in the stern aboft the backboard. Along each side h a row of air tanks (A T) with other air tanks at bow and ttern

The sheer line is the line, as seen in profile, along the hull defined by the gunwale or top edge of the topmost strake of planking, the sheer strake. Sheer strakes are sometimes thicker than other strakes of planking. When a second plank, next below the sheer strake, is fitted thicker than the others, it is called a binding strake.

Bilge strakes would be the heavier planks fitted at the turn of the bilge, though the term might be applied to ceiling inside in the bilge. Ceiling is not overhead, as ashore; it is planking laid inside the frames. The garboard (pronounced garb'd) strake is the lowest strake of planking, fitted next to the keel.

Strakes of planking between the bottom and topsides are called wales. Topsides refers to the portion of the hull between the water-line and the rail or gunwale. The term wales is also used to describe heavy strakes {rubbing strakes) below the gunwale. Longitudinal timbers, extending outside the exposed faces of planking, usually metal-shod to protect the topsides, are referred to as side fenders or fender guards. In pleasure boating, the term fenders commonly calls to mind the cork-filled canva devices, or those of rope or rubber, suspended over the side to take shocks when lying against a dock or another boat.

We have already used the term bilge in speaking of the "turn of the bilge" and in its association with "bilge strakes." However the bilge is also the lowest part of the hull inside where bilge water accumulates. Boats carried out of water on larger craft must have boat plugs, usually of metal, which can be removed to drain water which might otherwise collect inside.

The sheer plank has been defined as the topmost strake along the hull where the deck joins the topsides. Plank sheer, on the other hand, means the outermost plank of the deck. Sometimes called a covering board, it covers the tops of frames and upper edge of the sheer strake in a decked boat, as capping does in an open boat. Covering boards are usually wider than any of the narrower deck planks.

Chain plates are strips of bronze or iron bolted to the side of a boat, to which rigging is attached, such as the shrouds or shroud whips (to be defined later). Bottom boards (sometimes foot boards) are those laid in the bottom of the boat to walk upon. In small boats they are often removable. Where there are no deep floors, previously defined, boards may be laid directly upon the inside of the frames to walk on. These are footlings.

Boats Handled By Oars

The transverse seats in small craft are called thwarts. On them, oarsmen sit when rowing. When two men pull one oar, the oars are double-banked, but the boat is also double-banked if two men pull from one thwart. To support the thwart, a vertical piece is often fitted under it amidships, called a thwart stanchion. A man who is sculling would stand in the stern and propel the boat by working a single oar back and forth, using either one or two hands. The term sculling is also applied to the rowing of light racing shells.

Stretchers (also called foot boards, although this creates confusion with the alternate term for bottom boards) are sometimes fitted in small boats, athwartships, for the oarsmen to brace their feet against. The ends of thwarts land on risers, or risings, which are fore and aft pieces or stringers fastened to the inside of the frames.

Side benches, running fore and aft, are fitted at the sides of a boat over the air tanks which float the boat if capsized. The benches protect the tanks. Planking over tanks is also called ceiling. Instead of decks, some small boats have platforms at the level of the thwarts forward of the foremast. A gang-board runs down the centerline of the boat from the forward platform to the after thwart.

The terms rowlock and oarlock are synonymous. These are the fittings which hold the oars when rowing. In place of oarlocks, wooden thole pins are sometimes driven into holes or sockets. In certain types of boats, like surf boats and whaleboats, used in rough water where a rudder might be out of water so much as to destroy its effectiveness, a steering oar is used at the stern, shipped (put or held in place) in a swiveled steering rowlock, sometimes called a crutch. Trailing lines are attached to oars to keep them from going overboard. When oars are muffled to prevent noise, pieces of canvas with strands of rope yarn attached are placed between the oars and the oarlocks. These are thrum mats. Sweeps are long oars.

Oars And Rowing Orders

Oars are very simple in their construction, yet they have a special nomenclature to designate their respective parts. The handle of course is the part gripped in the hand when rowing. At the other end, in the water, is the flat blade. Spoon oars, for racing, have curved blades. The round part of an oar between handle and blade is usually called the loom, although the term loom may properly be applied to the part from handle to oarlock, in the boat when rowing. The loom tapers as it approaches the blade. Where loom and blade meet is the neck; at the end of the blade is the tip, sometimes protected with a strip of sheet copper.

Oars is a command given to oarsmen to order them to stop pulling, holding the oars horizontally with blades feathered (parallel with the water to reduce wind resistance.) Out oars is a preliminary command given when the oars are to be made ready in the oarlocks for pulling—in other words, to ship them in the oars position. Give way means start pulling.

Trail is an order to let go the oars while the boat is under way, allowing them to swing around in a fore and aft position, with blades trailing alongside. (Hence the term trailing line, defined above.) If there are no trailing lines, the handle of the oar is held in the hand to execute this order. To check the way (movement through the water) of a boat—either headway if going forward, or sternway, if going backward—the command is hold water. Stern-board is an alternate term for sternway. The command hold water is executed by holding the blades vertically in the water with oars at right angles to the keel.

To go astern the command to oarsmen is stern all, whereupon they will back water, using the oars in a manner just opposite to that when pulling to give the boat headway. To make a turn the order is back starboard or back port depending on whether the turn is to be made to starboard or port. A quick turn to starboard can be made, provided the boat does not have too much headway, by ordering back starboard, give way port. Back port, give way starboard will result in a quick turn to port, as the port oarsmen are backing water while the starboard oarsmen are pulling ahead. Stand by to give way calls for the position at the beginning of a stroke as oarsmen, leaning forward, prepare to row.

Sprit-Rigged Mainsail

When coming alongside a vessel, the command toss oars is given to order the oarsmen to place their oars in a perpendicular position, blades fore and aft, handles resting on the footlings. Commonly the command is preceded by a cautionary stand-by to toss. Whenever a warning to the crew is desirable, before issuing any command, the expression is stand by to. . . . For example, a preparatory or warning command for the order or position oars is stand by to lay on the oars.

Boat the oars means place them in the boat on the thwarts, blades forward. When a boat has grounded, the order is point the oars, whereupon the oarsmen, standing, set the oars at an angle, blade tips on the bottom, ready to shove the boat off on command. Way enough means stop pulling and boat the oars.

Stand by the oars is a command given when shoving off from a ship or going alongside, when the oarsmen grasp the handles of the oars and see that the blades are clear of other oars. Blades are laid flat on the gunwale, handle over the thwart. At up oars, they are raised vertically, blades trimmed fore and aft, handles on the footlings. These commands make a boat ready for duty alongside a ship.

At the command shove off the bowman lets go the painter and shoves the bow off from a vessel's side with the boat hook while the coxswain aft, in charge of the boat, sheers the boat off with the tiller. The duty of various oarsmen in such a maneuver varies with their position in the boat. The order let fall is a command given when the boat is clear of a vessel's side. This is an intermediate order between up oars and oars as the blades are dropped outboard into the rowlocks. In bows is ordered as a landing is made to instruct bowmen to toss oars at a forty-five degree angle, boat them, pick up boat books and stand holding them vertically in readiness for the landing or ready to receive lines.

The coxswain (pronounced cox'n), as explained, is the officer in charge of a boat. He stands aft at the tiller to steer and issues the orders. The tiller of course is the bar or handle on the rudder head by which the rudder is moved to steer the boat. Sometimes the tiller is not shipped. Instead a thwartship piece of wood or metal may be fitted on the rudder head. This is a yoke. Then the boat is steered by means of lines called yoke ropes or lanyards attached to the yoke. In order to provide sufficient thickness for a slot for the tiller to be shipped in, cheek blocks may be bolted on the sides of the rudder.

Pintles and gudgeons are commonly used to hang the rudder of small boats. The pintle is in the form of a hook or pin on the rudder, point downward. This fits into the gudgeon on the stern post, which has an eye to receive the pintle. In other boats, rudder hangers are used, providing a vertical rod of metal for attachment to the stern post with rudder braces to fit over the hanger.

Nautical Terms Used In Connection With The Rigging And Handling Of Sailing Craft. Various Types Of Sails And Rigs

We have covered in the preceding pages many of the nautical terms relating to parts of the construction of rowing and sailing craft. Most of these terms are applicable alike to the whaleboats, cutters, and other small craft used by the Navy and Coast Guard, and to many types of small pleasure craft. Proceeding now to the terms used in the rigging and handling of sailing craft, we encounter a jargon quite unintelligible to the landsman.

For example, consider some of the rigs which distinguish various types of sailboats by the arrangement of their masts and sails. Simplest of all is the catboat, with its single heavy mast stepped well forward, and one sail. The original type of catboat had a gaff-headed mainsail and no bowsprit or shrouds. (These terms will be defined later.)

The sloop also has one mast, stepped further aft so that, in addition to its mainsail abaft the mast, there is room for jibs and other head-sails forward of the mast. Properly, the sloop has a bowsprit. Without a bowsprit, the rig is described as a knockabout or stem-head sloop.
The cutter, like a sloop, has one mast but this is stepped more nearly amidship so that the total sail area is almost equally divided between mainsail and headsails. (A cutter is also a type of ship's boat.)

Ketches have two masts. Of these the taller (the mainmast) is forward. The mizzen mast (the after one) is stepped forward of the rudder post. Yawls resemble ketches, except that the mizzen mast or jigger is abaft the rudder post. Yawls have proportionately less of their total sail area in the mizzen, and the rig of the ketch is said to be inboard because it does not project much beyond the stern of the boat as in a yawl.

Schooners have two or more masts, with the fore-and-aft rig which distinguishes practically all modern sailing craft from the square rigs of the old windjammers. In the latter, the square sails were set from yards, set horizontally across the mast. Unlike yawls and ketches, the after mast (mainmast) of a schooner is always as tall as, or taller than, the foremast.

Schooners are sometimes staysail rigged with triangular fore and aft staysails between the fore and mainmast, jib-headed triangular {Marconi) mainsail and the usual headsails. Schooners without topmasts above the lower masts are bald-headed.

A sprit rig is used on some dinghies and other small craft. In this type of rig the upper aft corner {peak) of the fore and aft sail is held aloft by a light spar called a sprit, inserted in an eye called a grommet.. The sprit at its lower end is supported by a snorter or becket consisting of a light line about the mast with an eye in the lower end to take the sprit. Although the sail is quadrilateral, no gaff at the head of the sail or boom at the foot is required, though a boom is sometimes used, as in the illustration, its forward end held in a becket, the same as the sprit above it.

Lug rigs are of various types and their use is also confined to small craft. The standing lug has a yard which crosses the mast obliquely while the tack (forward lower corner) of the sail is made fast to the mast. If there is no boom, the sail is said to be loosefooted. The balance lug differs in that the boom projects somewhat forward of the mast. In a dipping lug the tack is made fast to the stem, or ahead of the mast, so that the yard must be dipped around the mast when tacking.

A sliding gunter has a triangular jib-headed sail, with topmast sliding aloft as an extension of the lower mast. This is popular on many small racing dinghies.

Whale-boats are double ended pulling lifeboats, 24 to 30 feet in length, used by the Navy. They often have a standing lug rig on two masts, but no jib. Cutters are double-banked ships' boats, with transom sterns, used for general duty. (See also previous definition of cutter rig.)

Wherries are a type of small pulling boat, 12 to 14 feet in length, used generally by officers of Navy craft. Dinghies are not only the small boats towed by pleasure craft, and propelled by oars, sails, or outboard motors. Dinghies used by the Navy are 16 to 20 feet in length, have four oars, single-banked, and a sprit rig for sailing. Gigs are ships' boats used by captains or commanding officers.

From bow to stern, the mast of a four-masted schooner would be named the fore, main, mizzen, and jigger. The principal (lower) sails set on these are the foresail, mainsail, mizzen sail and spanker, the latter being the after sail of a schooner having more than three masts.

Topsails may be set above lower sails from topmasts, with names corresponding to the masts on which they are set. A bowsprit projects out from the stem and a jib-boom may be rigged out beyond the bowsprit.

Jibs are usually triangular sails set before the foremast, although in recent years the clew (aft lower corner) has been cut off certain jibs, making them quadrilateral. Some jibs are large, like the Genoa and balloon jib, overlapping the mainsail.
If a schooner has four principal headsails before the foremast, they are, working aft, the flying jib, outer jib, inner jib, and fore staysail.

Staysails, as previously mentioned, are triangular jib-shaped sails set from the stays which support the masts. Spinnakers are large triangular sails set from booms called spinnaker poles on the opposite side of the main or fore boom when running before a fair wind.

Canvas is a term used in speaking about all sails in general. Plain sails are the ordinary working sails, not including the lighter jibs and staysails. Storm canvas, on the other hand, includes jibs, staysails, or trysails of extra heavy canvas for use in heavy weather.

The head of a quadrilateral sail is its upper side, bent (made fast or secured) to a gaff; in a jib-headed sail, the head is the upper corner. The foot is the lower edge, bent to a boom. The forward side of a fore-and-aft sail is the luff, bent to the mast by means of hoops, or the more modern sail track and slides. In either case the method of bending the sail to the mast is such as to permit hoisting and lowering. The small pieces of manila used to secure mast hoops to the luff of a sail are called robands. The leech is the after side of a fore-and-aft sail.

In a gaff-rigged sail, the upper aft corner is the peak; the forward upper corner where gaff and mast meet, the throat (also called nock.) The lower corner forward where mast and boom meet is the tack; the lower corner aft, the clew.

Bolt rope is sewed to the edges of a sail to strengthen it. Tabling is the re-enforced part of the sail to which the bolt rope is sewed. The leech of a fore-and-aft sail (and the foot of a square sail) is usually cut with a curve called the roach. To support the roach and preserve its shape by flattening the leech, wooden battens (thin flat strips of wood) are inserted in pockets in the sail along the leech. Brails are lines running from the leech to the mast, used to aid in gathering sail in and securing it.

Sails today are usually cross-cut—that is, the cloths or strips which are seamed together to make the sail are laid out so that the seams are perpendicular to the leech. (See illustration of ketch-rigged whaleboat.) Cross-cut sails allow a freer flow of wind across their surface. A variation of this practice is found in mitered sails. In loose-footed sails, the general practice is to run the cloth strips two ways, perpendicular to both leech and foot, joining at the miter which runs from the clew to a point on the luff.

When wind pressure is too great on a sail, sail area is reduced by reefing, which is accomplished by gathering in canvas along the boom as the sail is lowered part way. Parallel to the foot of the sail, strips of canvas called reef bands are sewed for reenforcement and short pieces of line are attached. These are reef points, passed around the foot of the sail and secured. A reef cringle is an eye in the leech or luff of a fore-and-aft sail in line with the reef points. Reef earings (or pendants) are short pieces of line spliced into the cringles to permit the latter to be secured to the boom.

The masts, gaffs, booms, yards, etc., from which sails are set are referred to generally as spars. The mast, of course, is the principal vertical spar, supporting the gaffs, booms, sails, etc. On larger craft there may be a topmast above the lower mast, and even topgallant masts above the topmast. A jury mast is any spar rigged temporarily as a mast in the event that the mast itself is carried away.

The boom has already been spoken of as the spar to which the foot of a fore-and-aft sail is bent; the gaff, the one to which the head is bent. At the mast end, jaws of the boom and gaff encircle the mast to keep these spars in place. Goosenecks (also called Pacific irons) are swiveled metal fittings used on many booms instead of jaws. Light spars used on a staysail or topsail or foot of the jib are not booms, but clubs.

Square sails are set from yards, a term applied also to the light spars used at the head of a lug rig sail. Bowsprits have been defined elsewhere as spars projecting from the stem. Short spars sometimes project from the stern, particularly on boats of the yawl type, where the mizzen boom overhangs the stern considerably. These are boomkins.

The foot of a mast—that is to say, its lower end—is called the heel; it fits in a step on the keel. Its topmost end is the masthead, often capped by a truck, a flat circular piece of wood. Hence the expression "from truck to keel," including everything in a ship from top to bottom. At the masthead, a sheave, the grooved wheel of a block, may be let into the mast to take halyards by which sails are hoisted.

Mast cleats of wood are sometimes attached to masts at the point where shrouds and stays (see definitions under rigging) are attached. Horizontal spars fitted on the mast to spread the shrouds and stays are spreaders. Tangs are metal plates attached to a mast where rigging is to be made fast. They distribute the strain over a considerable area.

A mast hole in a deck or the thwart of a small boat is the hole through which the mast is passed when stepped. When the primary function of a thwart is to serve as a support for the mast, rather than as a seat, it is often spoken of as a mast bench. Instead of a hole in the thwart, a semi-circular metal band is sometimes hinged at the edge of a thwart to hold the mast. This is called a gate, sometimes mast clamp.

All the various ropes of a vessel which secure masts and sails, taken together, are referred to as rigging. The standing rigging includes that part, like shrouds and stays, which is permanently secured, whereas the running rigging embraces the part which is movable, such as the sheets, halyards, etc., running through blocks.

Masts are supported by stays forward (headstays, jibstays, fore-stays, etc.), usually of wire rope, with shrouds at the sides, and backstays from aft. A spring stay is one running between a schooner's mastheads. Turnbuckles, as previously indicated, may be used in rigging to set it up. Deadeyes (round blocks of lignum vitae with holes through them and a groove around the edge) are used for the same purpose. They are found between the shrouds and chain plates on the vessel's side. Lanyards of rope reeve (pass) through the holes of the deadeyes and provide a method of adjusting tension in the shrouds. Shroud whips are also used to set up the shrouds.

While a mast is stayed in a vertical position, bowsprits are guyed horizontally (or at an angle) by bowsprit shrouds at the sides and a bob-stay from below. Steeve is the term that describes technically the angle the bowsprit makes with the horizontal.

Sheets are not sails. Sheets, of rope, are made fast to booms or the clew of loosefooted sails to control the angle at which the sail sets, relative to the wind directions.

While a simple single sheet is used on some small sailboats, on larger craft it is customary to provide additional power for handling the sails by reeving the sheet through blocks, constituting a tackle (purchase). A gun tackle, as used in shroud whips, is a purchase having two single blocks. There are main sheets, jib sheets, etc., depending upon what particular sail the sheet is used to control.

A metal rod called a deck horse or boom horse is commonly bolted to the deck and on it the ring of a sheet block can travel from side to side as the boom swings over. This is the traveller. On small boats, a wire bridle often takes the place of a deck horse. Ordinarily today one speaks of the deck fitting (horse) or wire bridle on which the sheet block runs, as the traveller. Running rigging is secured to belaying pins of metal or wood set in pin rails {fife rails) and is said to be belayed, when made fast. Cleats are also used on small craft in place of belaying pins. In small boats it is good judgment never to belay the sheets, as sudden squalls may make it necessary to let them go in a hurry, to prevent capsizing (turning over).

Halyards (also spelled halliards), another part of the running rigging, are the ropes or tackles used to hoist sails or yards, while the tackle or rope that hauls them down is called a downhaul. Outhauls haul the corner of a sail, the clew for example, out to the end of a spar. Topping lifts are lines used to support or hoist the outer end of a boom. Down from the topping lifts, light lines lead, in the form of bridles, to the boom. These are lazy jacks, which control the sail as it is taken in, preventing the sail from falling on deck.

Sailing Terminology

Whereas a motor boat has only to lay her course, regardless of wind and weather, (except under unusual conditions), a sailboat's course is governed to a large extent by the wind direction. For example, a sailboat can never go dead to windward or into the wind's eye (in the direction from which the wind is blowing) but would be said to point well if she could sail within four or five points of the wind. Therefore, to reach an objective to windward, she must tack along a zig-zag course, each leg of which is a board. Thus she goes alternately on the starboard tack (when the wind comes over the starboard bow) and the port tack (wind on the port bow) and is then said to be beating (or working) to windward.

When she is sailing as close to the wind as possible, a boat is close-hauled, on the wind, or by the wind. Full and by is a synonymous expression indicating that all sails are full {drawing) and the boat is pointing as high as possible.

Opposed to the idea of sailing as close to the wind as possible is the expression sailing free, associated with the condition when the wind is aft. Or, under similar conditions, if she is sailing with sheets well eased off (not hauled in close) she may be said to be sailing large or off the wind. She runs before the wind when sailing free with the wind well aft, that is, over the stern or quarter.

Sheets taken in as much as possible are hauled flat. Sails are trimmed in when they are brought in more nearly parallel with the boat's fore and aft centerline, but to allow the sails to swing off away from that centerline, the sheets are started.

In changing from one tack to another the boat goes about or comes about. To prepare his crew to execute such a maneuver, the coxswain orders Ready about! Then, putting the tiller down (away from the wind, toward the lee side of the boat), he calls Hard alee I and brings her about.

As the sails belly out, catching the wind as it shifts across the bow, they fill away, or the boat is said to fill away as it gathers headway on the new tack. To miss stays is to attempt to come about and fail to complete the maneuver. Then if the boat is caught in a position where she will not fill away on either tack, she is in irons. Should the wind catch the sails on the wrong side while she is in irons and start to drive the boat astern, sails are said to be aback.

One fetches a given objective if he is running a course to windward and reaches the mark without tacking. When working to windward, each leg or tack is a board and, depending on the length of each leg, there may be long boards and short boards.

If a gust of wind comes along, threatening to capsize the boat, the coxswain must ease the pressure of wind on his sails, so he puts the tiller down (away from the wind, toward the lee side). He is luffing then as the boat's bow swings into the wind and the luffs of the sails shake so that wind is spilled. If he attempts to sail too close to the wind, causing all the sails to shake, and spill wind, the expression is all in the wind.

A reach is a course that can be made good when sailing off the wind, that is, sailing free, not close-hauled. The wind then is nearly abeam. With the wind forward of the beam, it is a close reach; abaft the beam, a broad reach.

Running before the wind, sails are sometimes set with booms on opposite sides, wing and wing. It is considered the most dangerous point of sailing to have the wind dead aft because of the risk, to an inexperienced boatman, of having the boom accidentally swing across the stern to the opposite side. This is a jibe (or gybe) and at the least can cause considerable damage to spars and rigging. If the maneuver is executed deliberately, with the sail and boom kept under control, there is no danger and this is exactly what happens when wearing. Instead of tacking, with the bow passing through the wind, the stern in wearing is brought through the wind.

Another point that must be watched in running before the wind is a tendency to yaw, or veer suddenly off course. The boat is said to broach to if, through bad steering or the force of a heavy sea, she is allowed to slew around with a possibility, as she swings into the wind, of being caught broadside in the trough.

To bring to is to stop a boat by throwing her head into the wind, (or to come to an anchorage). To heave to is to lay the boat with helm to leeward and sails trimmed so that the boat alternately comes to and falls off, keeping out of the trough. Vessels often heave to in heavy weather. Motor boats heave to when the boat's head is brought into the wind or sea and held there by means of her engines. Larger ships sometimes are allowed to drift in whatever position they will assume relative to wind and sea, with wind on the quarter or even with the ship lying in the trough. That may be their method of heaving to, depending on how the ship will be most comfortable under stress of weather.

A sailboat lies to when, without anchoring, she is held in one position with no way on. The bow pays off when it swings away (falls off) from the wind. She is kept a rap full when sails are filled, not quite close-hauled, and is pinched when sailed so close to the wind that the sails shiver. If a boat is carrying a heavy press of canvas, the helmsman may ease her by luffing a little. Lines are eased off when slacked.

Sails are bent to spars; lines belayed to cleats or bitts when made fast or secured. Lines reeve through blocks or fairleads (which guide them in the desired direction). Sails draw when they fill with wind and drive a boat; bag, when they set too full, with taut (tight) leeches and canvas slack. Slack is the opposite of taut. One looses sail when unfurling it. To furl sail is to roll it up and secure it to a yard or boom, and unfurl conveys the opposite idea when the sail is made ready for use.

A boat is under easy sail if she is not laboring or straining, but when the wind freshens it may be necessary to shorten sail (reduce the amount of canvas carried). Douse and strike are synonymous terms used when sail is shortened.

Reefing (spoken of elsewhere in connection with the parts of a sail) consists of reducing the area of a sail by lowering it part way, gathering the foot of the sail along the boom, and securing it with the reef points. There are usually several bands of reef points; to close reef means to shorten down to the last band, rather than just a single or double reef. When no sail is set, as happens on occasion when a vessel scuds (drives) before a gale, she is under bare poles.

Most confusing are some of the terms having to do with directions relative to the wind. As previously indicated, windward (pronounced windard) means toward the wind, the direction from which the wind blows. A boat goes to windward, but in speaking of the side of a vessel and the parts on that side on which the wind is blowing, it is better to refer to the weather side.

Opposed to windward is leeward (pronounced looard), the direction away from the wind, toward which it is blowing. The lee side, therefore, is away from the wind, and a boat makes leeway when blown sideways off her course. A lee shore is a good one to give a wide berth (keep well clear of it). Many use this term in a mistaken sense, thinking that there is protection from the wind under a lee shore. But since it is one on which the wind is blowing, it is dangerous. When a vessel is caught on a lee shore and has to work her way clear, she is clawing off.

As a boat heels {not keels) to the wind in sailing, the weather side is up, the leeward side down. Hence the expression, putting the helm or tiller up or down. A boat carries weather helm if the tiller must be kept to windward in order to hold her course; lee helm if it must be kept to leeward. In a good breeze it is well for a sailboat to carry a little weather helm. Then if the tiller is let go the boat will tend to come up into the wind instead of falling off. The trim of the boat, determined by the distribution of the weight of crew and ballast, has much to do with what helm the boat will carry.

Other Terms

Few will require to have the distinction between cabin and cockpit pointed out in their application to small boats. Many small rowing and sailing craft are entirely open or partly decked. On small decked boats a cabin is the enclosed space, the cockpit open. In sailing vessels the cockpit is usually a small well aft where the steering wheel is located.

A lot of misunderstanding revolves about the use of the term sheets. When speaking of the parts of a boat—not sails—the fore-sheets indicate that space forward of the foremast thwart. The sternsheets is the space abaft the after thwart.

When small boats are fitted with sails, the keel is usually not deep enough to provide good sailing qualities so they are fitted with either centerboards or dagger boards. Their function is the same, but the construction differs. The centerboard lies in a vertical well, its long dimension fore and aft. It can be hoisted or lowered as required, being pivoted at the forward end. The well or box which houses the centerboard in its raised position is watertight and is called a trunk. The trunk has head ledges (vertical members) at each end and a cap on top. Dagger-boards fulfill the same function as a centerboard by increasing the keel area, but are raised and lowered vertically in the trunk, not pivoted.

A painter is a line at the bow of the boat, used for towing or making the boat fast. (One does not "tie a boat up.") A painter at the stern is called a stern fast. A sea painter is used in life boats when launching them at sea. This is a long line attached to a thwart by means of a toggle so that it can be cast off easily, the line being led well forward on the ship, outside all stanchions, etc.

Chocks are metal fittings through which mooring or anchor lines are passed so as to lead them in the proper direction toward a dock, other vessel, etc. Cleats, of metal or wood, are fittings with two arms or horns on which lines can be made fast, or belayed.

While cleats are satisfactory for making lines fast, wooden or metal bitts are often preferred where heavy strains are to be carried. These are vertical posts, sometimes single, sometimes double. They may take the form of a fitting bolted securely to the deck but often, as in the case of the wooden samson post, pass through the deck and are securely stepped at the keel or otherwise strongly fastened.

Towing bitts are also called towing posts. Where feasible, towing bitts on a towboat are located as near amidships as possible to permit the stern of the towing boat to swing for better maneuvering. Sometimes round metal pins are fitted through the head of a post or bitt to aid in belaying the line. Such a pin is a norman pin. They are also used to secure rudder heads.

When boats are to be lifted from the water on davits or hoists, metal fittings must be attached to the hull, usually the keel, to provide an eye into which hoisting gear can be hooked. These are hoisting pads, though on small pleasure boats it is often the practice to use lifting rings on deck, with rods passing down to the keel. Cleat and lifting ring may be designed as a combined fitting. Hoisting shackles are bolted to hoisting rods or pads; into these shackles the lower block of the boat falls is hooked.

Boat falls are the blocks and tackle used to hoist and lower boats on davits. A block consists of a wood or metal frame or shell containing one or more sheaves (pronounced shivs) or rollers in the sheave hole (space) between the cheeks of the block. Power to pull or hoist anything is greatly multiplied when a line is passed continuously around the several sheaves of a pair of blocks. The blocks with the line constitute a tackle (pronounced by seamen taykle). Boats, like fishermen's dories, are nested when thwarts are removed and the boats stowed one inside the other. Half a dozen boats, or more, may be so nested.

Slings of wire rope or chain are used when handling boats on booms or cranes. Booms are also rigged out from a ship's side for small boats to ride to when alongside. When a boat handled on davits aboard a ship is to be secured at the davit heads, it is held in position by gripes against strongbacks, which are spars lashed between davits. Gripes may be of canvas or tarred hemp with a wood mat backed with canvas. If the boat is secured in a cradle or chocks on deck the gripe may be of chain or metal, tightened down by means of turnbuckles. These are threaded metal devices having left- and right-hand threads so that the eyebolts, hooks or shackles at either end may be drawn together as the turnbuckle is screwed up. Turn-buckles are commonly spliced into rigging on sailing craft so shrouds and stays can be set up. When rigging is set up, the slack is taken out.

Boat hooks, mentioned elsewhere, hardly need definition. They are simply poles with metal hook fittings on the end used when a boat comes into a dock to fend off (prevent hitting) or to pick up a mooring. Fenders, of various kinds, have already been defined.

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