Being a sailor since childhood, I have always loved the language of sail, but as one who takes many novices out, I'm also grateful to the Aussies aboard A II when they won the cup fo legitimatizing a little more easily understood lingo. "Ready about" = Tacking in 2 (lengths) and "Hard alee" = Tacking Now. Seems a bit silly, but beginners understand it more.

Of course my long time sailing buddy and I had changed to lots of weird stuff just for laughs. Nothing like sailing close in a Thistle race and cracking another crew up (or at least getting their minds "out of the race") with a call of "Ready to Cum----Hard to Head"....They're like, what did those guys say?

catspaw