Too many ropes!
Actually, only a few of the "ropes" on a boat are called ropes.
Ropes or wires that hold up masts are collectively known as standing rigging and are called shrouds or stays. (The one from the mast to the bow is usually called the "fore stay", and side ones are usually referred to as just "shrouds".)
Ropes or wires that control the sails are known collectively as running rigging. Those that raise and lower sails are called halyards. Ropes that adjust (trim) the sails are called sheets. These are often referred to using the name of the sail they control (eg. "main sheet", or "jib sheet").
Ropes used to tie the boat up when alongside are called lines or springs.
There are some ropes: A few examples, the bell rope (to ring the bell), a bolt rope (attached to the edge of a sail for extra strength), a foot rope (on old square riggers for the sailors to stand on while reefing or furling the sails), and a tiller rope (to temporarily hold the tiller and keep the boat on course). A rode is what keeps an anchor attached to the boat when the anchor is in use.
Other terms
Walls are called 'bulkheads'. The toilet is traditionally called the 'head', the kitchen is the 'galley'. Sails in different sail plans have unchanging names, however.
For the naming of sails, see sail-plan.
Sailing terms have entered popular language in many ways.
"Broken up" was the fate of a ship that hit a "rocky point."
"Pooped" refers to the aftermost deck of a ship, taken from "puppis" the Latin word for "stern".
"In the doldrums" referred to being becalmed, windless, especially in the narrow band of hot windless water "the doldrums", near the equator.
"Adrift" meant literally that a ship's anchor had come loose, and the ship was out of control near land and therefore in serious danger.
"Keel-hauled and hung out to dry." was the rather nasty process of attaching a sailor to a rope, and drawing him under the sailboat while underway, and then hanging him from a yard-arm (under his shoulders usually, not by his neck), where officers and crew could mock him. Often, the barnicles on the hull would cause lacerations, making this a particularly unpleasant punishment.
Sailing regulations
Sailors are expected to know the essentials of boating safety which include;
- The right-of-way rules known as "rules of the road" or more fully as the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (or "ColRegs" in the UK, "NavRules" in the USA) are particularly relevant to sailors because of their limited manoeuvrability compared to powered vessels.
- The IALA International Association of Lighthouse Authorities standards for lateral marks, lights, signals, and buoyage and various rules designed to support safe navigation.
- The SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) regulations place the obligations for safety on the owners and operators of any boat. These regulations specify the safety equipment needed and emergency procedures to be used.
Sailing traditions and etiquette
There are many, more esoteric, etiquette rules, traditions, and customs that will demonstrate to others advanced knowledge of boating protocol such as; pulling up the fenders when you're not in port, the use of flags.
See also
Sail, Yachting, ketch, sail-plan, cat boat and sloop, Catamaran, Dinghy sailing, Dinghy racing, Yacht racing, Day sailer.
External links
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By linking together a series of 'close-hauled' legs it is possible for the boat to make an upwind course. In between in each leg the boat 'tacks' through the 'no go zone'.