Share some Sailing Terms....

[Curious Sailor]

Bigwigs:
Senior officers in the English Navy were known as "bigwigs" because they wore huge wigs. Bigwig officers aboard ships were often disliked. Today it is still used to refer to the most important person in a group or undertaking and is often used in a derogatory manner.


Scuttlebutt
The scuttlebutt is a cask on a ship containing the vessel's drinking water. It was named this as the container was traditionally a small barrel, the so-called "butt," which had been "scuttled" -- had a hole made in it -- so water could be accessed. As sailors would often gather around the scuttlebutt to chat, the word has also taken on a slang meaning of rumor or gossip.

At a loose ends:
A nautical term for a rope when unattached and therefore neglected or not doing its job. Thus 'tying up loose ends' indicates having done a complete job or having dealt with all the details.

Barge in:
The word barge refers to the more common, flat-bottomed workboat which is hard to maneuver and difficult to control.* They would bump and bang into other boats thus the term . . . "barge in."


Loose Cannon:
Today the term "loose cannon" refers to someone who is out of control, unpredictable, and who may cause damage, just as the canons would do if they were to break loose on the decks of the old sailing vessels.

Bitter End:
The last part of a rope or final link of chain. The end attached to the vessel, as opposed to the "working end" which may be attached to an anchor, cleat, other vessel, etc. Today the term is used to describe a final, painful, or disastrous conclusion (however unpleasant it may be).



Three sheets to the wind:
This expression meant that one did not have control of the vessel because one had lost control of the sheets or lines. Today the expression is used to refer to someone who is drunk or does not have control of himself or herself.

[MarkJ]

"Shackles" in anchor length.

When around superyachts they say how much chain is out by shackles: "I have 2 shackles out".

Bloody hell! I hope they have a few links too! Can't they just use meters? Or for Americans 'footsies' or whatever they call it?

"Shackles" in anchor length is 15 fathoms. So 1 shackle is 30 meters, or 90 footsies, 2 pinkies and a toe nail.


Mark

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

"Shackles" in anchor length.


"Shackles" in anchor length is 15 fathoms. So 1 shackle is 30 meters, or 90 footsies, 2 pinkies and a toe nail.


Mark

how many shackles to a cable?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

"Shackles" in anchor length.

When around superyachts they say how much chain is out by shackles: "I have 2 shackles out".

Bloody hell! I hope they have a few links too! Can't they just use meters? Or for Americans 'footsies' or whatever they call it?

"Shackles" in anchor length is 15 fathoms. So 1 shackle is 30 meters, or 90 footsies, 2 pinkies and a toe nail.


Mark

AKA "Shot".

Note, some around here have been known to use these terms incorrectly for describing rope anchor warps (as in "I have a shot of chain and 2 shots of nylon"). A shot or shackle is specifically a measure of chain.


Shackles may be useful if you use the old formula for calculating scope:
"Twice the square root of the depth of water in fathoms = the number of shackles of cable."

[StuM]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

how many shackles to a cable?

6.76 if you are British, 8 if you are American

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by StuM

6.76 if you are British, 8 if you are American

Smart ass.

A cable is .1nm or 200 meters, close enough.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Smart ass.

A cable is .1nm or 200 meters, close enough.

A British or International cable is .1nm or 101 fathoms or about 185 meters.

A US cable is 120 fathoms or about 220 meters.


Or to be really pedantic:

We also have:
Metric Cable (France and Spain):200 metres. Approx. 109 fathoms.
Other Cables:Russia: 100 fathoms.
Holland: 123 fathoms.
Portugal: 141 fathoms.

[MarkJ]

No wonder those foreigners anchor too close...

[ryon]

"Sweat a line". Here's a phrase we use daily aboard tallships, and neither YouTube nor Wikipedia has any idea what it means.

Imagine a line running aloft that needs to be tightened. You could grab it and pull down with all your weight like Wikipedia says, but that would be a lot of work. And sailors get plenty of work as it is!

Instead you haul against that line horizontally, like an archer pulling back a bowstring. Your force is thus multiplied many times.

How this works in practice is the crew handling the line will call out "I need a tail!". The closest crew not engaged will take the belay. The hauler will then call out "two - SIX!" which is the belay's cue when to hold, and when to take in the slack. Sometimes two or three crew will lay-on to haul together, even if just to get one more inch, leaning forward on two and bouncing back with all their force on six.

Why do I tell you this? Because I don't want you to sweat the small stuff. It's hard on the rig!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by ryon

"Sweat a line". Here's a phrase we use daily aboard tallships, and neither YouTube nor Wikipedia has any idea what it means.

Sorry to disillusion you, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halyard
"When the person jumping can no longer pull up the sail simply by hanging on the halyard, he must "sweat" the line. To "sweat" the halyard is to take as much slack out of it as possible.[1] This may be done with a winch, or manually. To manually sweat a halyard, the sweater grasps the line and, in a fluid motion, hauls it laterally towards himself, then down toward the deck, letting the tailer take up the new slack"

(Actually, I'm not sorry )

[ryon]

Originally Posted by StuM

Sorry to disillusion you, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halyard
"When the person jumping can no longer pull up the sail simply by hanging on the halyard, he must "sweat" the line. To "sweat" the halyard is to take as much slack out of it as possible.[1] This may be done with a winch, or manually. To manually sweat a halyard, the sweater grasps the line and, in a fluid motion, hauls it laterally towards himself, then down toward the deck, letting the tailer take up the new slack"

(Actually, I'm not sorry )

Sorry to be pendantic (Oh, who am I fooling? I love to be pendantic!) that is exactly how I described NOT to sweat a line.

(Turkey! )

[StuM]

Originally Posted by ryon

Sorry to be pendantic (Oh, who am I fooling? I love to be pendantic!) that is exactly how I described NOT to sweat a line.

(Turkey! )

"the sweater grasps the line and, in a fluid motion, hauls it laterally towards himself".

Sure sounds like sweating to me

[ryon]

Originally Posted by StuM

"the sweater grasps the line and, in a fluid motion, hauls it laterally towards himself".

Sure sounds like sweating to me

No. Sweating a line is as I described above.

You seem to have a lot of experience sailing which I do not wish to question, other than your qualifications to comment on anything regarding traditional wooden sailing ships.

[monte]

Ryon, what's the diff. Both yours and Wikipedia description is pretty much the same. I think Stu was just pointing out that it is in fact described on Wikipedia. Btw, it's also done on little yachts. I've done it a few times when racing but I didn't realise it's called sweating 🙈
Back on topic...sorta..we were hitch hiking around the island the other day and Jen asked why it's called hitch hiking. She's always asking the meaning or origin of English words that I have no idea about, so I have to stretch my brain a bit and try figure it out. Hitch as far as I know is used to describe a knot, as well as a towball/trailer connection. I figured the phrase originated from Ye olden times where it was common to attach a horse to a cart, which probably gave rise to the knot being called a hitch knot. So hitch in the form of hitch hike is to hike by tagging along behind another rider. Well, I think she bought it for now, until she asks someone with much higher intellect the same question (or google) ...

[StuM]

Sorry, but I'm failing to see the difference between:

"haul against that line horizontally, like an archer pulling back a bowstring."
and
"hauls it laterally towards himself,"

To me, they both describe the same motion.

What difference does it make whether it is on a traditional wooden sailing ship or a modern plastic fantastic race boat? I've used exactly the same expression and technique on many different boats.