Means ‘I am dragging my anchor’, and that could be very significant if you yourself should be lying astern of a large vessel making Y. The phonetic is Yankee and the Morse ‘-.- -‘.

Here we have the most difficult word of all. It is broadly correct to call almost any pleasure or sporting craft a ‘yacht’, but convention expects a certain status or size of any craft so named. A sailing dinghy is not a yacht because she is too light and flighty, yet an open ballasted-keel boat of no greater size earns the title of yacht by her sobriety. A small fast motor cruiser is not a yacht, but a big fast motor cruiser probably is, and a big slow motor cruiser certainly is. Sailing boats with cabins are all yachts, provided they are used for what we call pleasure, hell though it often is. People who own, skipper or crew on pleasure craft propelled by sail are all called ‘yachtsmen’, even though they may sail dinghies which are not yachts. The people concerned with power craft, however, become yachtsmen only when the craft themselves are staid enough to become motor yachts. Boats propelled by oars or paddles ain’t yachts, nor are the people in them known as yachtsmen. To make even more confusion, there are local and regional usages: in some places yacht is any boat with a sail, a ‘cruiser’ is any powered craft with a cabin, and a motor boat is a powered craft which is open. Probably none of this matters very much. The only really important thing is never to call your own boat a yacht. An owner who talks about ‘my yacht’ marks himself as a bounder, a braggart, a parvenu or just a pedant … but certainly not as a yachtsman. A yachtsman always owns a boat.

Qualification administered by the RYA sub-divided into Yachtmaster Coastal, Offshore and Ocean.

(1) A spar setting across a mast and normally used to support a sail. A Gaff, which terminates at the mast, is not called a yard, but the spar which forms the head of a Gunter sail is more often called a yard than a gaff, even though no part of it should cross the mast.

(2) The ordinary term for a boatyard – that’s to say a place where boats are built, repaired or stored … provided that it stands by the water. Inland boatbuilding factories are never called ‘yards’.

Threads or filaments become yarn when twisted or spun together. The yarn may then be used in that state, or several yarns may be twisted together to make a Strand.

A hull in the water has six principal degrees of freedom – i.e. six main ways in which it can move. It can Roll from side to side. It can Pitch, see-saw fashion. It can Yaw, turning left to right. And it can Heave, rise or fall vertically. It can also make leeway or drift sideways, and it can Scend, accelerate or decelerate in the fore-and-aft line. Furthermore, it can do several of these things at once.

A boat yaws whenever she turns to left or right. A hull may have an inbuilt tendency to yaw one way or the other, and a towed dinghy may yaw repeatedly, fIrst to one side and then to the other.

A two-masted vessel whose after mast (mizzen) is stepped well aft (as sketched under Rig.). It used to be said that a yawl’s mizzen must be stepped aft of the rudder post, but that no longer applies, as you may see if you will kindly turn to Ketch. The main merit of the yawl is that in heavy weather it permits the setting of a riding sail right aft, helping to keep the boat head to wind and sea. This is especially valuable if you want to ride to a sea anchor.

Yacht Brokers, Designers and Surveyors Association

Yacht Designers and Surveyors Association.

A cross-member on the head of a rudder, from the ends of which lines may be taken for steering. This device is used on rowing boats and on some motor boats.

The Chinese name for a long oar specially designed for sculling over the stern. It is not the same as the long oar which is called a Sweep in English, since its shaft is either curved or cranked, and may also be slightly flexible. These special features allow the blade of the Yuloh to twist on each stroke so as to bite the water. The inboard end of a Yuloh is held down by a rope strop which supports both the weight of the long outboard part and also the thrust of the blade.