INTRODUCTION This glossary is designed to help you make sense of the jargon developed by seafarers to describe sailing boats and what they do. ‘Sailing’ embraces ‘yacht racing’ which in turn includes America's Cup racing, the most refined and specialised form of racing– for the world’s most prestigious yachting trophy. Every four years, boats of all nations compete to find the strongest team to challenge the holder for the Cup. Since2003 the holder has been Team Alinghi of Switzerland, who will defend the Cup against a challenger in 2007, in the waters off Valencia, Spain. Organised by Alinghi, racing has been going on since 2004 to establish the challenger. You can follow the news and stories of the Cup racing on the official 32nd America’s Cup website by clicking here. http://www.americascup.com This glossary will refer regularly to the official website, but will also help you with the more generic words and concepts of sailing, racing, and the sea. The glossary is organised in four sections: • On the boat –the most-used words for the parts of a sailing boat, its rigging and equipment. • Sailing – terms and concepts for moving the boat in the wind. • Yacht racing –an introduction to how it works and to the basic rules. • On the sea, by the sea – terms for weather, winds and sea-state, plus words for features in ports and harbours, and finally, the overall rules of the road for everyone who puts to sea. Browse any of these sections to explore an area of interest, or use the SEARCH facility to find the meaning of a specific term.