Courtesy of: Sailingscuttlebutt.com

Published on September 20th, 2021

Sailing terms would make for an excellent Jeopardy category, and could be taught in school to fulfil additional language requirements. Here’s a list to share with your next newbie crew:

Amidships: Condition of being surrounded by boats.

Anchor: A device designed to bring up mud samples from the bottom at inopportune or unexpected times.

Anchor Light: A small light used to discharge the battery before daylight.


Beam Sea: A situation in which waves strike a boat from the side, causing it to roll unpleasantly. This is one of the four directions from which wave action tends to produce extreme physical discomfort. The other three are ‘bow sea’ (waves striking from the front), ‘following sea’ (waves striking from the rear), and ‘quarter sea’ (waves striking from any other direction).

Berth: A little addition to the crew.

Boat ownership: Standing fully-clothed under a cold shower, tearing up 100-dollar bills.

Boom: Sometimes the result of a surprise jibe. Called boom for the sound that’s made when it hits crew in the head on its way across the boat.

Calm: Sea condition characterized by the simultaneous disappearance of the wind and the last cold beverage.

Chart: A type of map that tells you exactly where you are aground.

Clew: An indication from the skipper as to what he might do next.

Course: The direction in which a skipper wishes to steer his boat and from which the wind is blowing. Also, the language that results by not being able to.

Crew: Heavy, stationary objects used on shipboard to hold down charts, anchor cushions in place and dampen sudden movements of the boom.

Dead Reckoning: A course leading directly to a reef.

Dinghy: The sound of the ship’s bell.

Displacement: When you dock your boat and can’t find it later.

Estimated Position: A place you have marked on the chart where you are sure you are not.

Flashlight: Tubular metal container used on shipboard for storing dead batteries prior to their disposal.

Gybe: A common way to get unruly guests off your boat.

Headway: What you are making if you can’t get the toilet to work.

Jack Lines: “Hey baby, want to go sailing?”

Landlubber: Anyone on board who wishes he were not.

Latitude: The number of degrees off course allowed a guest.

Mast: Religious ritual used before setting sail.

Mizzen: An object you can’t find.

Motor Sailor: A sailboat that alternates between sail/ rigging problems and engine problems, and with some booze in the cabin.

Ram: An intricate docking maneuver sometimes used by experienced skippers.

Sailing: The fine art of getting wet and becoming ill, while going nowhere slowly at great expense.

Shroud: Equipment used in connection with a wake.

Starboard: Special board used by skippers for navigation (usually with “Port” on the opposite side.)

Tack: A maneuver the skipper uses when telling the crew what they did wrong without getting them mad.

Yawl: A sailboat from Texas, with some good bourbon stored down yonder in the cabin.

Zephyr: Warm, pleasant breeze. Named after the mythical Greek god of wishful thinking, false hopes, and unreliable forecasts.

All true. I will add a couple from my time on yachts.

Estuary Marching: The long walk back when you mistime the tide and forget which side of the buoy shows safe water.

Harbor stew: the delicious dish made from all the cans left over at the end of a voyage.

Mystery stew: the delicious dish made when all the labels have come off the cans because of the damp.

A couple of more:
Boat trash: : what fellow sailers think of those that party all night accompanied by loud music.

Harbor scum : What non sailers call those that live on the anchor within site of very pricy homes and pay no taxes.

You left out "scuttlebutt" and "sea Lawyer."

All of which I believe to be dead accurate and form the basis of my mistrust of boats in general.

Out of all the toys I have lusted after in my life, boats have never been on the list.

UNCLEAT THE SHEET! UNCLEAT THE SHEEEEEEET!! Is the last thing my dad yelled to me before we capsized at Big Bear Lake 1974. I think he meant release the sail. If he'd said that, we'd have had more fun.

Had a similar experience. Fortunately, it got loosed before we capsized, but screaming “loose the main sheet” is not the most useful thing to say to someone who’s on his first sail…

That’s a great list!

I sailed for many many wonderful years with family and friends on our 16’ sloop rigged Wayfarer class boat.

Here’s a commonly heard term -

“F*CK!” - The sound one makes when the Boom makes direct contact with your head, which oddly enough makes a “boom” like sound, following an unexpected tack.

The previous owner of the boat had an ‘inclinometer’ installed on the outside of the forward hatch cover I suppose so it could be determined the number of degrees that the boat was heeled over (FWIW).

We re-named it the “Ohshitometer” for the obvious reason. 30-35 degrees or maybe a little more heeled over definitely got our attention.

FUN times on that little boat, the “Beetlebaum” (its original name).

One more:

The Flying Dutchman: so-called because after mooring your yacht to a buoy on the harbor and going for a run ashore, you return after dark with all hands '3 sheets to the wind' and embark on a seemingly endless voyage around the harbor in a poorly inflated rubber tender trying to find your vessel among the other 30 or so identical (to those wearing beer goggles) yachts that turned up after you left for the pub.


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B - O - A - T

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