Aback: When the wind is pushing against the wrong side of a sail or sails. Backing a sail may be deliberate, to stop or slow the vessel, or cause it to pivot, such as when backing the lib to push the boats head through the wind when tacking.

Boat: A small vessel, wheras a ship typically refers to a large vessel. Amongst mariners it's often use as a term of endearment with no relation to size or rig, like calling your girlfriend "baby." If my use of boat is an issue for you, I suggest you close your eyes while viewing this web-site.

Blocks: Blocks are what pulleys are called aboard ship, maybe because they were probably just a block of wood with a hole originally. The actually pully part of a block is a groved wheel called a sheave. Sheaves greatly reduce the friction of a line moving through the block.

Braces: The lines used to rotate the yards about the mast to angle the sails to catch the wind. Often used as a verb as in "to brace."

Brig: A sailing vessel with two masts, both having square sails on them. A common variation is the brigantines which (today) is a two-masted vessel but only the front-most mast has square sails.

Channel: A platform on the side of the hull that hold the shrouds (deadeyes & lanyards, turnbuckles) away from the hull.

Directions: On board, directions refer to the boat. Forward is toward the front, or bow. Aft is toward the rear, or stern. Port is toward the left side of the boat, not your left, the boats. Likewise starboard is toward the right, from the perspective of the boat. So Port is alway the boat's left, starboard the boat's right, not your left or right. The beam is the width of the vessel, and things to the side are said to be abeam or port-beam, etc. When referencing thing behind they are said to be abaft-the-beam or just abaft.

Flying: Typically a sail referred to as flying is a sail that is stowed below and set from on deck.

Fore-n-aft: While square sails lie across the boat, fore-n-aft sails lie in line with the center-line of the boat.

Heads'ls: The sails at he head of the boat; fore-stays'l, jib, and jib-tops'l or flying jib are collectively referred to as Heads'ls

Lizard: Basically a fairlead at the end of a line, meant to hold up some sction of running rigging so it doesn't snag on something else.

Lines: The ropes aboard vessels are more typically referred to as lines with some exceptions.

Masts: Masts are the up-right spars the carry the yards and sails. The masts on a vessel are named, from the front to the rear; Fore, Main, Mizzen. If there are more than three mast, they are usually called Jiggers as in first jigger, second, jigger, etc. In some circles the aft-most mast is called a spanker-mast

Prototypical: Refers to the real thing and how things are done on actual sailing vessels.

Rigging: Generally, there are two types of rigging: standing-rigging, which basically stands there holding up the spars; and running-rigging which are the lines handled to move the spars and sails.

Sail Names: Each sail on a vessel has a name specifying, typically, where it is on the vessel; which mast, where on the mast, etc. On the mast of a square-rigged vessel from the lowest sail upward, they are named; course, topsail, topgallant, royal, and skysail. Some vessels carried more, and into the 19th century it became common to divid the larger sails into separate upper and lower parts, as in: lower-topsail and upper-topsail, lower-topgallant and upper-topgallant.
The sails also take on the name of the mast they are on; for instance the top-sail on the main mast is called the Main-Top-Sail. Fore-n-aft sails attached to stays are called by their stays, such as; fore-stays'l or main-top-mast-stays'l.
In speech, the word sail is usually shortened to sound like sil, and written s'l, as in tops'l, pronounced top-sil. You will see that through-out this web-site.

Ship: In sailing parlance, a ship is a type of rig, specifically a sailing vessel with three or more masts having square sails on all of them; sometimes referred to as Ship-rigged

Spars: A pole of wood, metal tube, or some other material including the masts, yards, bowsprit, and other pole-like structures.

Squares: When referencing square sails on this site, they will usually just be called squares.

Tacks: A line attached to the clew of the course, which has no yard below it, the pulls the sail opposite of the sheet, to keep the sail tight when sailing on-the-wind.

Tops'l Schooner: Today this generally reference a schooner with a square fore-tops'l.

Up-Wind: A sailing vessel can't sail directly up-wind, so they sail at an angle to the wind so it's blowing on the back-sides of the sails enough to move the boat forward. Here you'll see terms like on-the-wind and close-hauled referring to sailing as close to directly up-wind as a sailing vessel can manage. Square-riggers typically get betwwen 50 degrees and 60 degrees to the wind, at best.

Off-the-Wind: When sailing with the wind abaft-the-beam, or coming from behind the boat.

Winch: At this site winch will more often than not, refer to a mor with a winch drum on it, used to haul in and pay out line. The reference will very often be to a servo with that function.

Winch Drum: A general term for the wheel-like part of a winch that the lines wrap around. The cylinder the lines wrap around directly is the actual drum while the large diameter disks dividing the drums and keep the lines on their own portion, are flanges