coaming: a raised plank rail around a cockpit to keep out solid water and spray. clew: the lower after corner of a foresail, mainsail, or mizzen sail.

cutter: a single-masted sailing vessel with the mast set at least two-fifths of the distance aft from the bow to the stern.

D.R.: short for dead reckoning. See below.

dead reckoning: the procedure of estimating a boat’s present position by projecting its course and speed for the time elapsed since its last known position. Dead reckoning without a celestial “fix” for too long a time can make the transoceanic navigator dead wrong.

dodger: a shield, often of canvas or vinyl, sometimes with a windshield and roof, usually placed to protect a cockpit from wind and spray. Sometimes looks like a baby carriage top.

dog: to fasten a hatch. Undog, vice versa.

doldrums: a belt of calms found, unpredictably, near the equator. Sometimes, during February or March, you will pass through them and hardly know it. In July and August you might be becalmed for weeks.

dorade: an arrangement developed on the racing boat Dorade, in which airscoops are mounted on compartmented boxes, which have drain-holes. Air passes from the scoop through one compartment, over a baffle, and into the other, thence through the deck to cool the cabin. Spray and even green water drains harmlessly from the holes in the dorades.

fix: a position obtained from celestial observation, or sighting land.

forecastle (fo’c’s’le): furthest forward compartment of a boat. Traditional refuge of the working crew.

foredeck: that part of the deck in the forward part of the boat. The foredeck crew in racing handles jibs and genoas.

forepeak: the below-deck area nearest the bow. Often used as a locker for the anchor chain.

freeboard: the area of hull between waterline and rail. A high freeboard can mean reserve buoyancy and a drier boat, but the price is often prohibitive in loss of maneuverability in a wind, excess leeway, and wave effect in heavy seas.

garboard: either of the lines of planks in a wooden hull lying next to the keel on each side.

gimbal: to swing freely, staying level as the boat gyrates. Sea-stoves are usually gimbaled to swing port and starboard; compasses are usually gimbaled in their binnacles to swing both port and starboard and bow and stern; a small-boat navigator must somehow gimbal his torso to get a decent sunsight.

gudgeon: a sort of projecting socket, secured to the stern, in which the “pintles” attached to the rudder rotate. On cruising boats, there must be several, for strength, since all the forces of the sea and the weight of the rudder itself bear on the gudgeons. (See “pintles.")

gudgeon holes: the holes in above, through which the pintles” project.

hack-chronometer: a chronometer which does not meet the requirements of a standard chronometer but is still accurate enough for navigational sights. Usually inset in a wooden holder and wound daily.