Sailing Terminology - why on earth is it so silly?!

I disagree, every area of life has special terminology, but it is kept to a minimum in most areas. Most terms on cars have their basis in the English language, so they're easy to remember (a damper damps suspension out, a wishbone looks like a wishbone, understeer is where the car under.. steers.., toe in is obvious etc etc). In cycling we have 'cadence', which is logical and IIRC is the only unusual word to learn. In football, 'offside' means you're off your own side of the pitch, and a header is hitting a ball with err... your head! In contrast, sailing terms are seemingly totally unrelated, illogical and just confusing!

yes - to clutch means to grab, which is exactly what the two plates are doing - clutching each other.

I thought it was a hood, but then that was a battleship. I need to lie down

yes, I'll give you that. My point is though that the number of these terms in sailing is unrealistically high compared with other fields. You give me two car examples and I'll give you ten sailing examples.

One more question, dooes each language have a raft of silly sailing terms? Are these terms all just English?

Some lines are referred to as ropes: A bell rope (to ring the bell), a bolt rope (attached to the edge of a sail for extra strength), a foot rope (on old square riggers for the sailors to stand on while reefing or furling the sails), and a tiller rope (to temporarily hold the tiller and keep the boat on course). A rope is what keeps an anchor attached to the boat when the anchor is in use. It may be chain, rope, or a combination of the two.

A car is quite complex too, but if a mechanic is facing me whilst I'm sat in the car and I tell him I'm getting a vibration from the left hand side, he won't get confused! 'nearside' and 'offside' were abandoned in motor racing long ago as they were too confusing.

All this makes me want to do form a team called 'plain english, plain sailing' and enter a yacht race to prove it all works

And why is it…. the crew always stick the lightest one out on the trapeze, who obviously is not making a blind bit of difference to the trim of boat so much so that when it luffs you go flying through the air with the greatest of speed and end up with a face full of sail? And it hurts :harrumph:

And then :rant on: you get shouted at for not getting off the sail quickly enough :rantoff: helloooooo, you fat gits…. you bl00dy get out on the trapeze and end up getting your hair wet :doubleharrumph:

Is that an approved nautical term?

Except if you are American, when it is a rode.

A header is when the wind changes direction and forces you to bear away. But you're right though.. Most sailing terminology is overly confusing. Take a kicker for example. It can be a kicker, a vang or a strut. Yet a strut can be a ram too. Or shrouds can be confused with stays yet they perform similar functions even though they're not the same.

When I used to train the runts at my sailing club I used to start off with a guided tour of the boat.

I used to say. This is the front, this is the back, that's left and that's right. That bit of metal sticking up in the air is the mast and the bit that smacks you on the head is the bit to keep clear of. Once you've got that sorted I'll teach you the proper names. The RYA bod who ran the course hated me as I threw the book in the bin. The kids loved me as I didn't do things by the book. Strangely some of them have gone on to great things. One's an Olympic hopeful in the Yngling class whilst others have gone on to sail at national / international level.