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A short glossary of the boat
These words are not folklore. They are unambiguous where everyday language would not be, and they still work when the wind takes half your sentence away.
The boat
Bow is forward, stern is aft, port is left and starboard right, always from the boat and never from the observer. The guardrail is the rail you hold, the netting or wire below it is separate. The bilge is the lowest point inside, where water collects.
The cordage
There is no rope. A line makes fast or tows, a sheet trims a sail, a halyard hoists one, a tail is an end. Coiling means stowing it in neat turns, clearing means untangling, belaying means making fast.
The sails
Luff, leech and foot are the three edges, head, tack and clew the three corners. Reefing reduces the area, luffing means flapping, backed means held against the wind, as the jib is when hove to.
The weather
Windward is the side the wind comes from, leeward the other. Luffing up means turning closer to the wind, bearing away further from it. A gust is brief, a freshening lasts. Broad reaching is wind from well aft, close hauled is as near the wind as she will go.
What this has to do with insurance
In a claim report these words are not style, they are precision. "The line parted" and "the halyard parted" are two different events, and naming the right one saves the follow up question and gets you a decision sooner.
