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This may be a post already but I couldn't find it. What I am looking for since I am new to sailing is what terms did you have set in your mind as one thing but completely wrong.
I will start this off and make myself look dunce.
I expected a stuffing box to be an actual box around the shaft filled with wet soupy fiberglass like material that had to be changed out ever so often. I have always been and inboard/outboard boater so it was new to me.
What other terms made you want to smack yourself once you realized what it was?
Threw a mooring line to a dead engine fish boat passing the end of the pier .Said make it fast. Deckie quickly looked at the line.Boat carried on into the causeway
I learned early on that the sheet was the line controlling the sail, so I had that down. What I didn't appreciate was when the skipper yelled "sheet!" that meant to pull that line in, typically referring to the spinnaker. The conversation went something like this:
Spinnaker apparently curling and starting to collapse.
Skipper: "Sheet... sheet... SHEEEEEEET!!!"
Me: "Yes, I have the sheet, it's right here, do you want it?"
Don't be ashamed of your lack of sailing terminology. Many people who learn to sail on their own have very basic sailing vocabulary but can sail circles around the ASA 10-whatever person who memorized the textbook.
Then there's all the different ways of saying the same thing. You're luffing. You're high. You're pinching. You're too up. You're slow. Come down. Bear off. Ease.
The Admiral is finally getting fluent in "Boat". As opposed to English.
I still tend to use the term "reef" in the common (non-sailing) sense.
Needing to sheet in the genoa tightly, or pulling in any line with force
Me: "Pull harder on the sheet...really reef on it!" or "We have the headsail reefed in as far as we can" (meaning it's sheeted in as far as it'll go).
Lots of "gangway" instead of "companionway" has been said on my boat as well.
Port your helm to turn to starboard.
Wear to sissy gybe.
Cat your anchor.
Jack,baby, back, bob, running stays.
Sail chord, draft, depth ? In key of e?
Kicking strap. Watch your shins.
Gybe ho. Don't ever do that you'll catch a disease.
Leaving an anchorage in the Bahamas, I set sails and was tidying up, new to sailing GF at helm, I saw honkin' huge rock to port, barely awash..."turn right" I said...."WHY" she said...
Topsides =/= deck.
Ceilings are on the walls, and floors are beneath the floor.
Nautical language is interesting in its own right, and precise terminology can be usefulamong qualified actors. For beginners, 'left' and 'right' are fine. Once they've fallen in love with sailing, they'll seek out the right names of things. Too many times, argot is used as a test or grounds for mockery of other sailors. A pox on all prescriptivists.
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