Main Sailing Terminology For the Novice Vacation Boat Sailor

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Once you are learning to sail, the first thing you will notice is that it is full of confusing terminology. For the beginner it can be pretty devastating, but each one has to start somewhere, even British Olympic heroes such as Ben Ainslie or Sarah Ayton. So if you don't know your sheets from your booms, or your port from your starboard, here are some definitions of some of the most common sailing terms.

The Bow and the Aft

The bow is the name known to the forward part of the boat, and the aft is the name given to the back half. However, the aft is slightly more problematic because it is also recognized as the stern. The bow is important to know because its location directly relates to two of the mainly important terms in sailing: port and starboard.

Port and Starboard

Port refers to the left-hand side of the boat when you are looking forward towards the bow. Starboard is the reverse, referring to the right-hand side of the boat. Beginner sailors often consider that it would be easier to use 'left' and 'right', but these could refer to something else whilst out on the water and become confusing. It is important to know these two terms because many sailing system regarding the rights of way that oncoming boats have refer to them. One general way to remember them is that 'port' has the same amount of letters as 'left', but they will soon roll off the tongue easily.

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Windward and Leeward

As you will already know, sailing is intricately linked to the wind and what way it is coming from. It therefore comes as no surprise that we have our own names to refer to these directions. Windward therefore refers to the direction in which the wind is blowing, and leeward the direction opposite the way the wind is blowing. People tend to mistake these pretty a bit to start with, so don't worry if it takes a while to remember them.

The Boom, the Rudder and Sheets

These are all stuff set up within a sailing boat. The boom refers to the horizontal pole that connects to the foot of the sail. It moves from side to side to harness the power of the wind, and be able to be pretty dangerous if the sailor is not paying awareness to it. The rudder is the flat piece of plastic or wood that is located under the boat, and is responsible for steering. It is controlled with a sheet, which is the name given to any rope that is used to control either the boom, the sail or the rudder. Sheets also have another names according to their role, but we won't go into that here.

Tacking and Jibing

These are two of the most general maneuvers in sailing. Tacking is proficient by spinning the bow through the wind, allowing the wind to alter from one side of the boat to the other, and the boat moves towards an upwind location in a zig-zag manner. Jibing is essentially the reverse of this, and involves turning the stern of the boat through the wind in order to travel downwind. However, the maneuver is often a lot quicker and less controlled than tacking, and the quick-moving boom can make it more dangerous.

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