50 Fun Facts About Sailing

Facing forward on a boat, where is starboard?

The name comes from Old English steorbord, the 'steer side', because early ships were steered with an oar on that side.

Why was the steering oar on early ships placed on the starboard side?

The result was that ships docked on the opposite side, which became the 'port' or loading side.

What was the older name for the port side of a ship, changed in the 1500s?

It came from 'ladebord' or loading side, and was dropped partly because it sounded too much like starboard when shouted.

Which manoeuvre turns a boat's bow through the wind so the wind moves to the other side?

A series of them in a zig-zag lets a boat make progress toward a destination directly upwind.

A jibe (or gybe) turns which part of the boat through the wind?

An accidental one can send the boom swinging violently across the cockpit, which is why sailors call 'gybe-oh'.

Roughly how many degrees either side of the wind is a sailing craft's 'no-go zone'?

Sailing as close to that edge as possible is called beating, with the sails close-hauled.

A boat sailing at 90 degrees to the wind is on which point of sail?

At 135 degrees it becomes a broad reach, and at 180 degrees the boat is running.

The spar that runs along the foot of a mainsail to control its shape is called what?

Traditionally made of wood, they are now mostly aluminium or carbon fibre.

What is the line used to hoist a sail up the mast called?

The name is a contraction of 'haul yard', from the days when it raised the yard rather than the sail itself.

The large balloon-like sail flown when sailing off the wind is thought to be named after which yacht?

The word's first recorded use came in 1866, a year after the yacht set hers in the Solent.

A sailboat with a single mast, one headsail and one mainsail is called what?

It is by far the most common rig on modern cruising and racing yachts.

Which of these distinguishes a two-masted ketch from a yawl?

On a yawl the small mizzen sits aft of the rudder post, often right at the stern.

The triangular mainsail rig used on most modern yachts takes its name from which island?

It is also called the Marconi rig, because the tall stayed mast reminded people of early radio masts.

The word 'catamaran' comes from a word in which language?

Kattumaram means 'logs bound together', although the craft itself was a raft rather than a twin-hulled boat.

Which seafaring peoples invented the catamaran and spread across the Indian and Pacific?

Their crab-claw sails carried them from Taiwan as far as Madagascar and Easter Island.

One knot equals one nautical mile per hour, which is exactly how many kilometres per hour?

The name comes from the chip log, a knotted line paid out over the stern to measure speed.

A nautical mile was historically defined as one minute of what?

That makes the Earth's polar circumference very close to 21,600 nautical miles.

Francis Beaufort, who devised the wind-force scale in 1805, was a naval officer serving which country?

Francis Beaufort's original scale described the effect of wind on a frigate's sails, not wind speeds.

The earliest known representation of a sail, from Egypt, dates to roughly when?

The Nile's northward current and southerly prevailing wind made it an ideal place to invent sailing.

The America's Cup was first raced in 1851 around which island?

The schooner America beat 15 Royal Yacht Squadron yachts, and the trophy took her name.

What informal nickname does the America's Cup trophy go by?

It is a bottomless sterling silver ewer made by Garrard & Co in 1848, three years before it was first raced for.

For how many years did the New York Yacht Club hold the America's Cup before losing it in 1983?

It remains the longest winning streak in the history of any sport.

What design innovation did the 1983 challenger that finally took the America's Cup use?

Designed by Ben Lexcen for Alan Bond's syndicate, the appendage was kept hidden under a skirt in the dock.

Which American skipper lost the Cup in 1983 and won it back in 1987?

His loss and comeback were the basis of the 1992 film Wind.

The 2013 America's Cup was raced in which type of boat?

Oracle Team USA came from far behind to keep the Cup in San Francisco.

Which syndicate won the America's Cup in 2017, then defended it in 2021 and 2024?

The 2024 defence took place in Barcelona, far from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's home in Auckland.

Who was the first person to sail single-handed around the world?

His book Sailing Alone Around the World is a travel classic; he vanished at sea aboard the same boat in 1909.

What was the rebuilt oyster boat that completed the first solo circumnavigation in the 1890s called?

The 36-foot gaff-rigged sloop could famously hold a course for long stretches with nobody at the helm.

Who became the first person to sail solo, non-stop around the world, in 1969?

He was the only one of nine starters to finish the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and gave his prize money to Donald Crowhurst's family.

How many of the nine entrants completed the 1968-69 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race?

The race is remembered for Donald Crowhurst's faked positions and apparent suicide, and it inspired the Vendee Globe.

French sailor Bernard Moitessier named his steel ketch after which sailing pioneer?

In the Golden Globe he abandoned the race while leading and kept sailing on to Tahiti.

In 1966-67 Francis Chichester sailed around the world with a single stop, in which Australian port?

The voyage in Gipsy Moth IV took 226 days and he was knighted on his return.

In 2005, which British sailor broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe?

Her time of just over 71 days beat Francis Joyon's record; she later founded a charity promoting the circular economy.

The Vendee Globe, the solo non-stop round-the-world race, starts and finishes in which French town?

Founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, it has run every four years since 1992.

Australia's famous Boxing-Day-start ocean race runs from its largest city to which port?

The first race was held in 1945 and the course is roughly 630 nautical miles down the New South Wales and Tasmanian coasts.

How many people died when a storm sank five boats in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race?

The winds were comparable to a low-category hurricane, and the disaster overhauled offshore safety rules.

The Fastnet Race is named after a rock off the coast of which country?

The 1979 edition killed 15 sailors after a violent storm, with at least 75 boats knocked upside down.

The round-the-world race now called The Ocean Race was first sponsored by which British brewer?

It began in 1973, became the Volvo Ocean Race in 2001 and took its current name in 2019.

Which sailor is the most successful in Olympic history, with gold at four consecutive Games from 2000 to 2012?

His gold-winning Laser and Finn dinghies are displayed at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Why were the sailing races at the first modern Olympics in 1896 cancelled?

The sport was officially called yachting at the Games until 2000.

The single-handed Laser (ILCA) dinghy was co-designed in 1970 by which Canadian yacht designer?

It has been an Olympic class since 1996 and a 1970s boat is still identical to one built today.

The Optimist, the small dinghy that children learn to race in, was designed in 1947 in which US state?

It was the biggest hull that could be built from two sheets of eight-by-four plywood.

The clipper Cutty Sark, now preserved at Greenwich, was built in 1869 to carry which cargo?

The Suez Canal opened the same year, handing the China route to steamships, so she soon switched to Australian wool.

The Cutty Sark is named after a character wearing a short shirt in a poem by which writer?

The witch Nannie from Tam o' Shanter is the ship's figurehead.

The clipper era effectively ended with the opening of which two shortcuts in 1855 and 1869?

The boom had begun in 1843 with the race to bring China tea home fastest.

What is the nautical term for a boat leaning over to one side under the force of the wind?

Catamarans and iceboats resist it through their wide stance, while keelboats rely on ballast low in the keel.

What is the line that controls the angle of a fore-and-aft sail relative to the wind called?

Other lines such as the outhaul, halyard, boom vang and backstay shape the sail's curve, flatter in stronger wind.

A boat that keeps trying to turn up into the wind is said to have what?

It happens when the centre of force on the sails sits behind the hull's centre of resistance, and the opposite tendency is lee helm.

Which sailing craft typically has the least resistance to forward motion of any type?

Freed from hull drag in water, they experience a narrower range of apparent wind angles and can outrun the true wind downwind.

What name is given to the calm high-pressure zones between the trade winds and the westerlies?

Long-distance sailors plan around these belts of light wind along with the fronts that accompany highs and lows.