Boating & Marine

• Aboard: on the boat. Though it is commonly used in other areas such as flight and train travel, the phrase "all aboard" in terms of boating signifies for passengers to board the ship or boat.
• Above Deck: on the deck. Commonly mistaken for the word "aloft," the term can be deceptive by misleading boaters to believe the term literally means above the deck.
• Adrift: not anchored or tied to any docks. When a boat is adrift, the wind and waves control the boat's movement and usually draw it closer to a shore or cove.
• Aft: the back end of the boat. Aft is used to describe close to or nearby the stern or tail of the boat.
• Alee: moving with the wind and towards the lee. Generally, the term means the same as "leeward" and is the opposite of aweather. It is also used to describe a side of a boat.
• Aloft: above the boat's deck. Unlike "above deck," this usually describes a person when they are on the mast and ropes (or riggings) or they are above the main deck like in a crow's nest.
• Anchor: a metal weight, attached to a thick rope or chain, that is thrown overboard to keep the boat from drifting with the wind or currents. It usually is shaped like a double hook so it will catch onto rocks and other objects on the water's bottom.
• Anchorage: a place where an anchor can be dropped or the act of anchoring normally in a harbor or just outside a harbor.
• Astern: an adjective used to describe an object in the back of the boat or a direction in which one wants to travel. To "go astern" means to travel backwards.
• Autopilots: an electronic device, often combined with GPS and fishfinders, that steers a course you set beforehand and acts as the pilot of your boat. It is used mostly for fishing help or when short-handed.
• Aweather: moving against the wind or weather. In other words, moving in the direction in which the wind is coming from.
• Barometer: a device that measures the pressure in the atmosphere. Usually in the form of a compass, it responds to fluctuations in the atmospheric pressure. Short term weather patterns can sometimes be predicted by the pressure fluctuations.
• Beacon: often a lighthouse, it can be a fixed light meant to signal or guide travelers in boats. In terms of navigation, it is a radar device usually fixed into the face of a rock that transmits a reply pulse that allows for the boat to determine its exact location in relation to the beacon.
• Beam: the longest width of a vessel. It is also the horizontal bars that support the decks and flats.
• Bearing: the direction of your destination. Though it is often erroneously used as a synonym for "heading," to get one's bearing means to figure out one's location in relation to their target destination. Heading and bearing are not the same term.
• Berth: can mean many different things: a) the place to sleep on a boat, b) the area allotted at a wharf or the area for a vessel to anchor, c) the rank of a ship's officer.
• Bilge: the lowest rounded compartment at the ship's bottom where the two sides meet. The term also can refer to the water that collected when it had drained down from the deck. The water needs to be pumped out, usually with bilge pumps, if the amount becomes too large and endangers the ship.
• Boat: a water transportation vessel that includes all the parts like sails, masts, etc. There are many types of boats for different purposes, like carrying cargo or skiing.
• Boom: a spar at the end of a sail meant to extend the length of the sails. It is used especially in cargo ships' fore and aft sails.
• Bow: the front part of the boat. A general term that describes the front end of any boat or ship. Sometimes it is referred to as "prow" as well.
• Bow Line: most commonly the rope that hooks the bow of the boat to the dock, securing it to the dock. Also, a bow line is the rope securing the weather leech (corner) of a square sail, which allows a boat to sail smoothly when close-hauled.
• Bowline knot: a common knot in sailing and boating where one makes a loop in the end of a line and creates a bowline knot that prevents the loop from slipping. The knot joins the foresail and the jib sheets together in a sailboat.
• Bowrider: a type of boat where the bow seating is open, exposed to the air.
• Buoy: a floating but typically stationary tool nods above the waves. It is used for a variety of purposes, but all are meant to help boaters navigate. Some of the most common types are sea marks, which help boats to navigate around maritime channels, hazards, and administrative areas, and fairway buoys, which mark entrances of channels or landfalls. Weather buoys measure atmospheric pressure and wind speed and direction. Lifebuoys, which have a connecting line, are tossed to people overboard so they can be pulled to safety.
• Cabin: often an officer's enclosed living quarters on a naval vessel but also a full compartment or room for the crew.
• Capsize: to flip the boat over completely. Generally boats only capsize when they run into something, like an iceberg or huge chunks of debris in the water, or strong waves from a storm or ship roll it over.
• Cast off: to untie the lines and move away from the shore or dock; to let a boat loose from mooring. In other words, to set sail.
• Channel: a crossable path between two bodies of water; usually the bed of a river, stream, strait, or bay where one can navigate safely despite the area being otherwise unsuitable.
• Chart: a nautical map that helps even non-navigators find their way in the lakes, rivers, or other bodies of water they are in. Though people who are already very familiar with an area generally forgo them, they are extremely helpful to new boaters or new places, helping them evaluate what they see versus what they should be seeing.
• Chartplotter: an advanced device that aids boaters in plotting courses by incorporating GPS data with electronic navigational charts. Some use sonar sensors and display the boat's heading and speed.
• Chine: usually refers to the sometimes sharp angle in the hull where the two side planes meet without rounding. A chine appears almost fin-like on the bottom of some boats. There are two common types: a hard chine and a soft chine. A hard chine has very little rounding, while a soft chine has more rounding but still comes to a point.
• Close-hauled: a boat is considered to be close-hauled when the boat is sailing as close to the wind as possible with the sails snugly trimmed. Though the angles differ from boat to boat, it helps the boat travels upwind diagonally.
• Cockpit: the open place on the deck or in a room where the boat's steering wheel is, though the term is not as commonly used. Usually found in small decked vessels, it is mostly occupied by a helmsman near the stern.
• Compass: the instrument with a directional needle that generally aligns with the Earth's magnetic field and points to the magnetic north. It can be used to calculate one's heading. Some compasses, like a gyrocompass or astrocompass, can even be used to calculate the true north. Many GPS units include compasses.
• Course: a predetermined or set route that a boat takes, or the direction it is heading.
• Cuddy: unlike a cabin, a cuddy is a much smaller shelter on the boat. Many people find they cannot fully stand up in it. Found mostly on smaller boats without cabins, a cuddy can be used for the sleeping quarters because it is still covered.
• Current: the direction in which the water moves.
• Dead Ahead: straight forward; directly in front of the boat.
• Deck: generally refers to the outer and main platform of the boat where one can walk and stand in the open air. Lifeboats are generally stored here. However, there are many different types of decks: a berth deck, which is below the gun deck and where the crew generally sleeps; a boiler deck, where boilers are stored; a bridge deck, where the helm is located; and many others.
• Deep-V Hull: a type of hull meant to cut through water rather than planning, or rising above it. The hull protrudes deeper into the water, providing less lateral steadiness and more water spray, but they are very good for rough waters. The V-shaped hull allows a boat to cut through waves rather than riding over them.
• Dinghy: a small open boat usually used as lifeboats. Some are inflatable, and they can be rowed or sailed or they can have a motor.
• Displacement: the boat's weight calculated by the amount of water it displaces.
• Displacement Hull: a rounded-bottomed hull that moves through the water and displaces an amount of water equal to the boat's weight. In heavy displacement hulls, the stern rises above the waterline, where the midsection is submerged deep in the water. While there is a decrease in speed, the boat with a heavy displacement hull can generally carry a lot more. The medium displacement hull is more economically friendly, however. Boaters with displacement hulls tend to stay near the recommended "hull speed" because water can swamp the stern if it is overdriven.
• Dock: often called a landing pier also, it is a platform connected to land that leads out over open water, generally supported by metal or wood poles. Boats can hook up to docks instead of anchoring.
• Draft: the depth to which a boat will sink given its weight and its load.
• Ebb: the flow of water heading back towards the ocean.
• Ebb Tide: the flow of the tide going back towards the ocean.
• Fathom: the depth of 6 feet or 1.83 meters, though the term is not used as commonly as it was before the twentieth century.
• Fender: often a piece of rubber, foam lining, or some sort of cushion between docks and boats that protect both from damage as they rub against each other. Most docks have fenders already installed along their edges or in their slips, but in the case that one doesn't, a personal buoy and tight roping can prevent the rubbing.
• Flare: a distress signal that people send up to signal rescue teams to the area. It illuminates the water in the surrounding area to draw attention. In marine life, flare guns are one of the most common types. They are shot directly above the boat and last a long time.
• Galley: the kitchen area of the boat. However, it is also an ancient type of boat that uses oarsmen.
• Harbor: an area of water geographically positioned so that it provides ships and boats protection from winds, currents, and waves. Providing a safe place to anchor, harbors are so used to load and unload ships.
• Heading: similar but not identical to bearing, heading is the actual direction in which the boat is traveling, rather than the direction in which the destination is. The boat's heading is often effected by currents and wind changes, leading a boat off course.
• Helm: the area of a boat where the controls are located. Also the wheel or tiller that controls the rudder and steers the boat. To take the helm means to take command of the steering.
• Hull: the frame or body of the boat that allows a boat to stay afloat on water. There are many different hull types that effect how a boat travels on the water, including how it takes to chop or larges waves. Check displacement hull, semi-displacement hull, Deep-V hull, planning hull, modified-V hull, etc.
• Hypothermia: a condition where the body's temperature drops far below normal. It can be life-threatening if treatment is not sought immediately.
• Ice Eater: a device that melts existing ice or prevents ice from forming around boats, docks, piers, pilings, boat houses, and marinas. It brings up warmer water to the surface, which will melt any existing ice.
• Inboard: within the boat, usually below deck. Or, a type of boat with an inboard engine.
• Inboard Engine: an internal combustion engine with a drive shaft running through the hull's base. The inboard motor is within the hull, at its center, and the propeller is beneath the boat.
• Inverter: an electronic device that reverses direct current to alternating current.
• Jet Boat: a watercraft that uses a propeller and a water-pump (or pump-jet) to draw water from underneath and eject it at the stern from a nozzle.
• Jetty: usually a set or pile of rocks that protects a harbor or pier and slows or deflects a current. They are used for regulating rivers and dock berthing, but they are also used at the mouth of tidal rivers and other various bodies of water. Some examples of jetties can be a landing pier or a wharf.
• Keel: the structural part of the hull that extends from the ship's tip to the backend and to which the frames are fixed to. It is sometimes called the backbone of the boat, and if a boat's keel is damaged greatly, it can be near impossible to fix.
• Knot: refers to the speed in nautical miles per hour.
• Latitude: the angular distance north or south of the equator. It is measured on the meridian of the point. Latitude lines run parallel of the Earth's equator.
• Lee: heading with the wind; in the same direction as the wind is going.
• Leeward: same as lee. Heading with the wind.
• Longitude: the geographic angular distance when measuring east or west by an angle between a prime meridian and the location's meridian. Longitudinal lines run north to south and intersect at the north and south poles.
• Make Fast: quickly secure a line. Boat talk used by captains shouting orders to the crew to quickly get the job done.
• Mast: the vertical structure supporting the sails and other spars. Some ships have multiple masts. A fore-mast on a large ship is the foremost mast on the ship, the one closest to the bow. The main mast is usually the tallest and is located in the middle of the ship. The mizzen mast, which is typically the shortest of the three, is on a ketch or yawl in the back of the ship behind the main mast.
• Modified-V Hull: a V-hull shaped boat with a deadrise under twenty degrees. A modified-v hull fixes some of the problems like water spray on a deep-v hull.
• Mooring: securing the ship to a pier or mooring buoy; "making fast" with ropes or anchors. Also, a buoy's ground tackle to which boats can tie to.
• Nautical Mile: about 6076.1 feet or 1.1508 miles at sea. It is also called a sea mile, approximately equal to one minute of latitude.
• Navigation Rules: like the rules of the road for cars, these are the regulations governing boats in the water. In the Code of Federal Regulations, it is Title 33. It tells of both international and inland navigation rules.
• Outboard Motor: an internal combustion engine consisting of the motor, propeller, and driveshaft and located on the boat's stern. Because of its design, it can control the steering much like a rudder can, even without the motor switched on.ÂÂ It can be raised in shallow waters to avoid the propeller becoming tangled in waterweeds.
• Overboard: over the side of the boat, usually into the water. Because of waves and chop, boaters run the risk of flying out of the boat.
• Personal Watercraft (PWC): a small craft with an inboard engine meant to be stood on, like a jet ski, wave runner, or a sea-doo.
• Personal Floatation device (PFD): a floating device like a vest or jacket meant to help a person float. Laws govern that children up to a certain age must wear one at all times while on the boat. While it's not required for adults, it is highly recommended that each person aboard has his or her own fastened at all times.
• Pier: a normally wooden platform supported by pilings that can be used for loading and unloading boats, as well as to stroll on. Unlike a wharf, a pier allows the currents to flow with minimal disturbance. Dock is another word for pier.
• Piling: a group of piles, or pillars, meant to support or protect wharves and piers.
• Piloting: steering a ship through waters using visual reference points and the depth of the water to navigate safely.
• Planning: moving atop the water, virtually above it. When a boat is planning, it is said to nearly be sliding across the top of the water.
• Planning Hull: a hull that allows a boat to easily slide across the water at higher speeds. As the boat's speed increases, the draft decreases. The hull is meant to ride atop the waves rather than through them like a deep-v hull.
• Port: a specific harbor meant to receive ships and to dock, load, and unload them. Usually at or near a city at the edge or base of a river, lake, or ocean, a port generally has equipment like forklifts and cranes to help with transferring cargo.
• Portside: the left side of the boat when facing the front.
• Power Cruiser: a boat up to forty feet long with lodging for trips.
• Propeller: the propulsion device that propels the boat through the water a multiple blades rotation. Depending on the brand and style, some propellers have only two blades while others have more.
• Quarters: a boat's living area where one can sleep and hang out.
• Quartering: aiming a boat at a 45 degree angle to oncoming waves to prevent rocking and diving as much. Also, quarter is a term used to describe a 45 degree angle on either side of the stern.
• Reverse Curve: the concave formation of the curve in a chine meant to avert spray.
• Rigging: all the equipment and wire cables that manage the mast and other spars. Generally the term describes all lines on a vessel.
• Rod Holder: the tool that holds your fishing rods when they are not in use. Anglers can purchase either horizontal or vertical holders depending on their preference. Some rod holders are meant to protect the rods also.
• Rudder: the underwater vertical device that allows a person to steer the boat by going back and forth in the water. The water pushes against the rudder and turns the boat in response.
• Running Lights: the lights on a boat that are required to be switched on by boating regulations, much like a car's headlights at night. Especially on a lake or river where there are no outside lighting fixtures, it can become dark and dangerous for those who do not have running lights.
• Safety Chains: the chains used to connect the towing vehicle to the trailer in the event that the coupler disconnects. The chains prevent the trailer from completely disconnecting from the vehicle and causing an accident.
• Safety Harness: a vest/harness that secures boaters to the boat to prevent them going overboard while cruising.
• Sailboat: a leisure pleasure craft that captures wind in the sails to move in the water.
• Seaworthy: a term that describes something that is able to handle the rougher waters typically found at sea.
• Semi-displacement Hull: a round-shaped hull that allows a boat some planning traits on the water. This hull has some dynamic lift capabilities, but displacement still supports the majority of the weight.
• Slip: a space to "park" your boat between two piers or floating fixtures, much like a parking space for a car. Some slips are just areas to pull in while others have a machine that pulls the boat out of the water.
• Sonar: the process of locating objects in water by judging the transmitted sound waves. Fishfinders and depth finders use sonar.
• Spar: the wooden or metal poles used in rigging and as support. Examples of spars are booms, yards, or bowsprits.
• Starboard: the boat's right side when facing the bow.
• Statute Mile: land mile equivalent to 5,280 feet in distance. At sea, navigators tend to use the nautical mile instead of the land mile.
• Stern: the aft or back portion of the boat.
• Stow: to store something on the boat. When stowing an item, it is generally placed in a secure packed compartment, room, or area out of the way of the general walking paths.
• Surge Brakes: the hydraulic break system that inverts the inertia of the trailer in a sudden stop. Research your state's requirement when it comes to emergency breakaway constraints.
• Through-hull: a term used to describe an item that goes completely through the hull.
• Tide: the fall and rise of the water level due to the Sun and the Moon's gravitational pull. Because tides visibly affect the water's depth in marine and estuarine waters, it is important to understand how and when they occur in order to navigate a boat safely during low tide especially.
• Tiller: the bar or handle that turns a boat's rudder.
• Trim: the balance of the boat in relation to the front and back. Also, to adjust the sails on a boat.
• VHF: very high frequency, often used by boat radios.
• V-berth: a v-shaped triangular bed or a v-shaped couch on a boat. Because of the shape of a boat's hull, the berth's shape is affected because of its location in the forward-most corner of the boat.
• Wake: the trail and waves that a boat creates while moving across water. Wakes vary between boat size and speed. Very generally, the bigger the boat and/or the faster it is going, the bigger the wake the boat generates.
• Waterline: the line to which a properly trimmed boat will sink into the water. It is usually marked on the boat, and when the boat is perfectly balanced, the portion below the line will be submerged in water.
• Waypoint: a location's coordinates. In GPS terms, it is a location in which one wants to travel to.
• Wharf: an artificial, fixed platform usually on pilings where boats can load and unload. It generally protects an area from the current by inhibiting the current's flow, slowing it down or redirecting it.
• Weigh: to raise the anchor out of the water. When you weigh an anchor, you are lifting it off the bottom of the floor of the body of water.
• Wind Meter: a device that determines wind direction. It is an important instrument on sailboats.
• Winch: a mechanical device that increase the power in raising and lowering anchors, trimming sails, etc.
• Windlass: the device on a boat that raises or lowers an anchor by rotating the chain around a drum.
• Windward: opposite of leeward; heading against the wind.
• Yachting: to cruise around in a yacht.