SAILING BOAT DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Ep 4: Learn to Sail: Part 1:
Parts of the Boat and Sailing
Terminology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=67e5N2BsQfE
i everyone welcome to carpe diem
sailing my name is Marco I'm a sail
Canada cruising instructor and in
today's video I'll be covering parts of
the boat and some sailing terminology
in my 25 plus years of teaching I have
found that learning the language of
sailing often represents a bigger
challenge than actually learning to sail
learning the terms and parts of the
boat
is fundamental to establishing a
foundation and a logical place to start
so we will do that here some of the
terms will be self-explanatory like
cabin or deck but others like topping
lift or fairlead will not and will
require some explanation to make sure
nothing is left out and to maximize your
understanding of the terms I will be
covering them all methodically so let's
get past all this and onto the pure
unabated joy that sailing can be for
free downloads of the diagrams used
in
this video as well as notes and
checklists please visit our website at
wwlp.com and now let's get started the
left side of the boat is port the right
starboard the front of the boat is the
bow and the back the stern the widest
part of the boat is called a beam in
front of the boat or moving forward is
ahead while behind a boat or moving
backwards is a stern right angles to the
boat is called a beam and forward and
aft are turns relative to being on the
boat much of sailing is in reference to
the wind upwind is called windward
while
downwind is leeward coming above or
tacking means to turn the boat with the
bow passing through the eye of the
wind
while under sail
driving is to turn the boat with the
stern passing through the eye of the
wind while under sail
since the sailboat cannot sail straight
into the wind we have to sail at an
angle to it while coming about or
tacking at intervals in order to gain
ground upwind this is called a beat or
beating to weather whenever a boat is
sailing upwind the pressure in the sails
forces the boat to go sideways
sailboats
carry center boards or keels to create
lateral resistance all boats will drift
sideways to varying degrees
depending on
many factors this sideways drift while
sailing upwind is referred to as leeway
we can however sail directly before the
wind and that is referred to as a run or
running the sails are generally set on
opposite sides of the boat and this is
called sailing wing on wing if not
trying to reach an upwind destination
by
beating or running downwind we can
essentially sail across the wind at
various angles this is what we call
reaching is further divided
into types of reaches based on the
angle
of the wind but more on that in our
video on the points of sail and finally
a major safety point we have no doubt
all heard horror stories of the boom
crashing across the boat indeed
people
have been seriously injured so it's
important to understand how this
happens
as the boat sails downwind the only
thing holding the mainsail forward is
the wind pressure should the wind shift
or the boat change direction so that the
wind gets in behind the mainsail it will
come crashing over in what is called
an
accidental or flying jibe when the wind
shifts to the same side of the boat that
the mainsail is on we run the risk of an
accidental jibe this is referred to as
sailing by the lis now that we've
covered some terms let's move on to
the
parts of the boat the deck and cabin
are
self-explanatory
the cockpit is the main working center
of a sailboat the companionway is the
main staircase down into the cabin the
main hatch covers the companionway
while
the secondary midships and forward
hatches provide ventilation and
emergency exits
the helm is the steering station and can
be a traditional tiller or more popular
on newer boats a wheel the traveler is
connected to the mainsheet which
incidentally is a line which controls
the mainsail fairleads
direct jib or Genoa sheets once again
these are lines to the cockpit clutches
or jammers are line managing tools
that
usually lead to a winch cleats are used
to make lines fast they can be found on
the mast or the boom as well as on
deck
looking at the boat in profile we have
the hull which includes the keel as
mentioned the keel provides lateral
resistance which allows the boat to sail
upwind on a keel boat
it also provides ballast which helps
keep the boat upright the rudder steers
the boat the mast holds the sails up
while the boom works at the mainsheet
to
control the shape and angle of the
mainsail the boom is connected to the
mast through an articulating joint
called the gooseneck the standing
rigging which consists of the four stay
the backstay and the shrouds holds the
mast up the stays and shrouds are
connected to the mast by tanks and to
the hull in deck by chain plates the
standing rigging is tensioned with
turnbuckles the running rigging is
made
up of all the working lines on the boat
the main sheet is the main line that
controls the angle and shape of the
mainsail the boom bang along with the
traveller help to fine-tune the shape of
the sail the topping lift holds the end
of the boom up when the mainsail is
not
in use the heavy loads on keel boats
are
managed by winches the windlass is
an
electrical anchor winch found on larger
boats the push bit is the safety railing
at the stern of the boat
while the pulpit is at the bow they are
connected by lifelines which are
supported along their length by steel
posts called stanchions spreaders
redirect the load of the shrouds to the
top of the mast the transom is the very
back of the boat and traditionally
rudders were hung here the gudgeon
is a
tube which receives the pintle to create
a hinge shackles in their various
configurations connect lines to
hardware
and sails now that we've seen the parts
on a diagram I'd like to go through our
teaching boat and just go over the
parts
once again just to give you an idea of
how they're laid out on an actual boat
so starting at the very back of the boat
at the stern we have our boarding
ladder
and then just for to the boarding ladder
we have this hard railing here which is
called the push bit for to the push bit
we have the backstay the backstay is
part of the standing rigging the
standing rigging is the rigging that
supports the mast from falling side to
side and fore and aft leading forward
from the push bit are these lifelines
the lifelines lead all the way forward
to the pulpit and on the way they're
supported by stainless steel posts
called stanchions another piece of
deck
hardware down here which is very
common
on boats is called cleat cleats are used
to make lines fast in this case dock
lines moving into the middle of the
cockpit which is the main working area
of a sail boat we have the helm in this
case the helm is a wheel you can also
have a more traditional tiller we have a
compass we have engine controls we
have
instruments there's a line back here
which is called a furling line that
furling line leads forward and actually
rolls and unrolls
are John Genoa or head sail a little bit
more in the video coming up later on
that a lot of these loads are quite
heavy so we use winches for
mechanical
advantage we're gonna have another
video
coming up later on the different types
of winches and how to safely use these
winches moving forward into the
companionway
the companionway is the main
staircase
down into the boat we have the main
hatch which closes the top of the
companionway and then these little
boards called wash boards or drop
boards
will slide in here to seal this area off
in this area here under this canopy
called the Dodger we have two more
winches and we have in this case eight
lines these lines are all part of the
running rigging so the running rigging
are the lines that actually control the
sails since we only have the two
winches
and we have eight different lines
coming
through here we also have these
things
here called clutches you can also have
jammers different types of rope line
managing tools so that when these
lines
are not on the winches they can be
held
fast by these clutches four of the
dogger we have this which is called the
traveler the mainsheet is connected to
the traveler and the mainsheet is also
connected to the boom which is
ultimately connected to the mainsail
and
you'll see later on in our videos on how
a boat sails that the mainsheet and the
traveler are used to shape the mainsail
that's all I'm gonna say about that for
now
but it's nice to know what exactly the
traveler is the traveler lines do run
through the dogger windows and back
into
the cockpit so I can control everything
from the cockpit as I mentioned earlier
all of these lines are part of the
running rigging so these are halyards
and reefing lines the blue one is the
mainsheet this one right here is the
boom vang these here are Genoa or jib
sheets or head sail sheets so any of
the
sails that we mount up forward or
college called head sails the Genoa is
the big one jibs tend to be smaller
we have handrails here and this part is
called a lifeline the lifelines are held
up by stanchions and the lifelines
connect the pulpit and the push bit now
more of the standing rigging these
ones
are called shrouds the shrouds are
connected to the boat at the bottom
through chain plates the top of the
shroud where it's connected to the
mast
is called the tang
and tanks traditionally were just plates
through bolted on the mast and I'll
have
a picture of that we have the mast the
boom is connected to the mast through
the gooseneck the topping lift is a line
that actually goes from the top of the
mast to the aft end of the boom to hold
the boom up when the mainsail is
actually lowered holding our mainsail in
place our our sail ties and you'll
notice that the sail is nice and neatly
flaked on the boom which is how a sail
should be stowed moving forward to
the fore deck we have our forward
hatch and

we have our pulpit we have the anchor

Locker with our anchor Road we have
another dock or a deck cleat with our
bow breast line and our spring line we
have an anchor up forward we have a
furling system so the furling system is
a way of stowing a head sail on the
boat
without having to put it up and down if
you had to put it up and down you
would
actually be clipping the sail on to the
four-state the force stays the standing
rigging that holds the mast up from the
front of the boat and you have these
clips called Hanks and the Hanks
would
actually clip the fail on to the force
day in this case with our throwing line
we simply roll and unroll the sail
without having to lower in and raise it
every time we want to use it and that
brings us to the end of this video