Chrysler Sailors Forum

Saftey Tip:
Nautical terminology! Know your terms, and know your crew!! Yep! How on earth can the words you use make boating safer? Imagine if you will . . . . You just bought your sailboat! All these new words you want to learn and use! Impress your friends with your knowledge! Show of this whole new language you've suddenly mastered! " Honey, grab the dock pole and fend off the port side of that sloop over there as we come about aft first into our slip". Imagine the dumbfounded stares you'd get as your green crew tries to decipher what you just asked them to do . Or worse, you're green and you hail the marina asking for a slip for the night. Their answer could go like this:" Yes skipper, we have a slip available, port side tie, north side of A dock slip 7, and welcome to ----- harbor". If you are not familiar with terms you create your own trouble!

As skipper, you should know your basic and most intermediate terms however you must know your crew and their level of knowledge! It is useless to spout orders or requests if the crew does not understand.

As a kid in a sunfish I was out impressing my new girlfriend. Life was good and only getting better! Sailing along in 5 kts of wind it was time to tack. I explained what it meant to tack. I explained how we would duck and move in unison as we turned the boat into the wind. I explained the boom would come over the top and hit us if we did not duck. Perfect! We were ready with a clear understanding!!! I yelled coming about! She looked at me and said "what??" I missed the look, tacked my little sunfish! Yeah, you guessed it! The boom smacked her squarely in the head!

I explained everything except "Coming about"!!! She was less than happy. Our day came to and end and in not the fashion my little mind had envisioned. All I had to do was yell duck!! But no, I had to impress my pretty, young, female crew with all my words!

Sometimes as skipper we must realize it is OK to say left, right, up there, back here, DUCK, grab that green rope, I'm sorry. ( heh heh heh! I missed that last one too 'cause I was laughing )




Question for today:Speaking of terms, it is good to know the basic parts of a sail.
Here is a picture I stole from chryslersailing.lizards.net and modified for this weeks question.

Please note that all 6 pointers are meant to point at parts of the main sail. Not the standing or running rigging. If the pointers appear off a bit it is due to my inability to manipulate MSPaint!!

Please associate the following terms with their respective letters in the photo.

1) clew
2) foot
3) head
4) luff
5) leach
6) tack








ALSO PLEASE NOTE:
This week I will wait until Thursday to give the answers to allow a few more folks time to respond.

Scott

Wow! An automatic extension, and here I am, uncharacteristically timely!

1 => B clew
2 => F foot
3 => E head
4 => C luff
5 => A leach
6 => D tack

I still haven't got the hang of peeing on the top of the mast

Nice Post, My sailing mag.& books have been on hold all summer, now is the time fore them. Winter time in Michigan, time to read an lern to be a better sailer.

I'm going to go with Windward 100%.

1) = D, Clew
2) = F, Foot
3) = E, Head
4) = C, Luff
5) = A, Leach
6) = B, Tack


It always seemed to me that Leach and Luff should be reversed. When I'm Luffing the sail the Leech is flapping, and the main sail is stuck to the mast by the Luff. It seems to me if the sail is stuck to the mast it should be attached like a leach to the mast. Eh.

Thanks
Alan

I agree also,, an remember it this way...

The Clew: I think smelly, like pewwww... bottom and back...
Foot: Like my feet, what it stands on... or base
Head: The top
Luff: When watchin the sail,, it usually "Luffs" first, the forward edge
Leach: What starts flappin after the Luff, luffs,, the trailing edge
Tack: whats left after I figure the others out...

Works for me anyway

1 = B
2 = F
3 = E
4 = C
5 = A
6 = D

Almost too easy but I have heard the same thing and when you see someone
docking and you are going to catch a dock line as the current is running swift
and you mention give it a little port helm and they go starboard. Almost as bad as 4 30'+ boats asked me in the Hudson river "which side of the bouy's
am I supposed to be on or the best was when I was trying to flag off a 42'
inboard doing about 25kn and did not answer radio the look on his face when his boat stopped in 6" of water at 1hr before low tide.
Gotta put up with the power boaters.

This was open book...right?

1) Clew -> B
2) Foot -> F
3) Head -> E
4) Luff -> C
5) Leach -> A
6) Tack -> D

I'm still learning about the parts of a sailboat so this stuff is great - keep it coming.

ANSWER:


1) B Clew
2) F Foot
3) E Head
4) C Luff
5) A Leach
6) D Tack


As far as open or closed book questions:
That really is your call. I prefer the closed book because I really don't want this to be a contest of who can look up the answer the fastest! LOL!
We'd all learn how to surf better but the answers would not stick as well.

Please feel free look up what you need to. Please always try and answer. There is nothing wrong with correct or incorrect answers. I simple want to help people learn more and have fun!!
Scott

Dang I got the Clew and the Tack backwards. I was so sure I had it right I looked it up and sure enough I had them backward.

Keep them coming Captain Scott, I've still only gotten 1 weeks question 100% correct.

Thanks
Alan