SEAMANSHIP · Lesson 1 of 6
Parts of a Yacht
25 min · Beginner friendly
You’ll learn toName the main parts of a sailing yacht's hull and deck · Use port, starboard, bow, stern, windward and leeward correctly · Recognise common keel and rudder configurations
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About 9 min
Sailors do not say left and right. They use words fixed to the boat, so an instruction means exactly the same thing to every crew member, whichever way each of them happens to be facing. This lesson gives you that language — and a mental map of hull, keel, rudder and deck.
Take a guess
First day aboard. You are facing the stern when the skipper calls: Fender over the port side — quick! Decide: which side do you put it?
Commit to an answer before reading on — a wrong guess here helps the right idea stick.
Speaking the Language
Knowledge check
A crew member reports a mooring buoy abeam to starboard. Where do you look?
- Port
- The boat's left-hand side when facing the bow. Marked by the colour red.
- Starboard
- The boat's right-hand side when facing the bow. Marked by the colour green.
- Forward and aft
- Towards the bow (forward) and towards the stern (aft).
- Amidships
- The middle of the boat, along its length or on its centreline.
- Beam
- The widest part of the boat. Something out to the side is abeam.
The Hull
Knowledge check
Your yacht has a draught of 2.0 metres. What does that tell you?
The hull is the watertight body everything else attaches to, and two of its measurements matter every single day. Draught — how deep the boat sits below the waterline — tells you where you can float. Freeboard — the height of the deck edge above the water — tells you how dry the boat is, and how far you will climb from the dinghy.
- Topsides
- The sides of the hull between the waterline and the deck — the part you protect with fenders.
- Transom
- The flat surface across the stern; on many modern yachts it folds down as a bathing platform.
Below the Water
A yacht's keel does two jobs. Its ballast — often lead or cast iron — sits low and resists the tipping force of the wind, which is why a ballasted yacht heels in a but does not capsize like a dinghy. And its flat area resists being pushed sideways, so the wind's push becomes forward motion rather than sideways .
| Keel type | Description | Typical trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Fin keel | A single deep blade below the hull, often with a bulb of ballast | Excellent sailing performance; deeper draught limits shallow harbours |
| Long keel | Keel runs along much of the hull length | Steady, sea-kindly and directionally stable, but slow to turn |
| Bilge (twin) keels | Two shorter keels, one each side | Can dry out upright on a falling tide; slightly less efficient upwind |
| Lifting or swing keel | Keel retracts into the hull | Very shallow water access; more moving parts to maintain |
Knowledge check
You are steering with a tiller and want the bow to swing to port. Which way do you move the tiller?
The rudder — the hinged underwater blade doing that steering — only works while water is flowing past it. Lose your speed through the water and you lose your steering; that fact will follow you through every boat-handling lesson to come.
Knowledge check
The skipper asks you to clip your tether on and go forward to the pulpit. Where are you going?
The same cast of fittings appears on every cruising yacht. Knowing their names lets you follow an instruction instantly; knowing their purpose keeps your fingers safe.
- Guardrails and stanchions
- Wires around the deck edge, supported by vertical posts (stanchions) and anchored at the pulpit and pushpit, to help keep crew aboard.
- Jackstays
- Strong webbing or wire lines along the deck that crew clip their safety tethers to when moving forward.
- Winch
- A geared drum that gives you the mechanical power to haul lines under load.
- Cleat
- A T-shaped fitting to which lines are secured, on deck and on pontoons.
- Fairlead
- Guides a mooring line over the deck edge at the correct angle, preventing chafe.
Windward and Leeward
Two last words are fixed to the wind, not the boat. The side is the side the wind reaches first — the upwind side. The side (pronounced loo-ard) is the sheltered downwind side, where the sails hang out and the boat leans when heeled. They matter later: in the collision rules a windward boat keeps clear of a leeward one, and a lee shore — land downwind of you — is one of the most dangerous places a sailing boat can be.
Your turn
Without looking back at the diagram: you are standing in the cockpit facing the bow, and the wind is blowing over the right-hand rail. Name (1) the side the wind is coming over, in boat terms; (2) the same side in wind terms; (3) the fitting at the very front that anchors the guardrails; (4) the measurement you would check before entering a shallow harbour.
Work it through on paper first — then check yourself against the solution. Reading a worked answer feels like learning; producing one is learning.
Key points
- Port is left and red; starboard is right and green — always relative to facing the bow, never to where you face.
- The bow is the , the stern is the back; describe movement towards each.
- Draught is depth below the waterline; freeboard is deck height above it; the is the widest point.
- The keel provides ballast for stability and resistance to sideways drift; the rudder steers, but only with water flowing past it.
- Pulpit (bow) and pushpit (stern) anchor the guardrails; winches, cleats and fairleads handle lines under load.
- Windward is the upwind side; leeward is the sheltered downwind side — these swap when the boat changes tack.
Finished this lesson?
Working through the sections marks it complete — or mark it yourself.