Nautical Acronyms

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    New PS reader Ed Marchese recently called to say that he is relatively new to sailing and is bewildered by the abundance of acronyms used in the sailing business; whats frustrating, he said, is theres no place to go for answers. Later he emailed us his “secret list” of “Classifiedese 101,” of which he said, “these may be obvious to the veteran sailor but NOT to a novice!” Well, Ed, here are definitions for some of those perplexing collections of letters on your list.

    • ST winches- self-tailing winches.
    • PHRF- Performance Handicap Rating Fleet.
    • Class sails- sails designed and constructed in conformance with a one-design class association rules.
    • Faired foils- keel and rudder that have been sanded fair.
    • Autohelm- brand of autopilot made by Raytheon.
    • K/CB- keel/centerboard; keel is usually shoal draft and houses the centerboard.
    • C/B- centerboard
    • Fin Keel w/MARS Keel Bulb- Deep, short keel that has a bulb affixed to its bottom made by the Mars Metal Co. in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
    • Windlass- Mechanical device on foredeck used to retrieve anchor.
    • Freeboard- distance between water and rail or edge of deck
    • 2 STRMS- two staterooms.
    • Repeater- duplicate instrument display located elsewhere from primary instrument.
    • Dutchman system- brand name of a mainsail flaking system.
    • Full batten main- sail battens that measure the entire width of a mainsail, from luff to leech.
    • AP- abbreviation for autopilot.
    • Barient self-tailing primaries & secondaries- brand name of winch company now out of business; primary cockpit winches are used for trimming headsail, secondaries for other purposes such as spinnaker, boom vang, etc.
    • Awlgrip, Awlgrip hull, Awlgripped mast- brand name of polyurethane paint made by U.S. Paint Co.

    Darrell Nicholson
    Practical Sailor has been independently testing and reporting on sailboats and sailing gear for more than 50 years. Supported entirely by subscribers, Practical Sailor accepts no advertising. Its independent tests are carried out by experienced sailors and marine industry professionals dedicated to providing objective evaluation and reporting about boats, gear, and the skills required to cross oceans. Practical Sailor is edited by Darrell Nicholson, a long-time liveaboard sailor and trans-Pacific cruiser who has been director of Belvoir Media Group's marine division since 2005. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license, has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans, and has skippered everything from pilot boats to day charter cats. His weekly blog Inside Practical Sailor offers an inside look at current research and gear tests at Practical Sailor, while his award-winning column,"Rhumb Lines," tracks boating trends and reflects upon the sailing life. He sails a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Yankee 30 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can reach him by email at practicalsailor@belvoir.com.