Mastering all those sailing terms can be troublesome. It’s like learning a silly secret language that an exclusive club made up just to befuddle outsiders, or at least that’s what I like about it. But sometimes it seems as though the sailing wizards have just gone too far. What follows are mariners’ words that have two or more meanings with little or nothing in common. Why? Just because.
Veer (vb.): (1) Of the wind, to turn clockwise, or when steering, to change course, often by spacing out; (2) To let out anchor rode, particularly when you believe that using fancy words will disguise the fact that you have no idea what you’re doing.
Bight (n.): (1) The middle of a line, where you have to learn special ways to tie knots like clove hitches and bowlines that you thought you already knew; (2) A concave stretch of shoreline, not deep enough to have its own name like those haughty coves and bays.
Foot (vb.): (1) To sail slightly further off the wind than a close-hauled course to increase speed; (n.) (2) The bottom edge of a sail; (3) The thing at the end of your leg, useful for many seamanlike tasks like kicking the windlass to get it started.
Fetch (vb.): (1) To sail to a point upwind without having to tack; (2) To “fetch up” means to come to a stop, usually on a reef (see below); (n.) (3) The distance over the water that a particular wind blows, generating waves. I’m not even counting what dogs do.
Reef (n.): A shallow shelf of rock or coral that sooner or later you’re going to hit; (2) The bottom part of the sail taken in when shortening down, although on a square sail this is the top of the sail, of course.
Point (vb.): (1) To taper the end of a rope; (2) To sail close to the wind, as in “she points well”; (n.) (3) Any one of several courses relative to the wind, as in “point of sail,”; (4) An area of land projecting from the coastline; (5) A 32nd part of the compass card equivalent to 11 degrees, 15 minutes. Are these five different things, or what? Couldn’t we have five different words?
And the winner is:
Westerly (adj.):(1) Of wind, blowing from the west; but (2) Of current, setting towards the west.
You’ve got to be kidding. I’m just sayin’.