Off-and-on: Working along a shore by standing off, and then on, by short boards.
Painter: A rope attached to the bows of a boat, used to make her fast to a landing-place, etc.
Preventer stays: Additional ropes set up taut to prevent spars carrying away when a vessel is under a press of canvas.
Reef-points: Short pieces of rope by which the foot of a sail is secured when a reef is rolled up, or, as the nautical term has it, hauled down.
Reef-tackles: The tackles by which the reef-pendants are hauled down.
Schooner: A fore-and-aft rigged craft with two masts. Sometimes schooners carry square topsails, and then are distinguished by being called "square-topsail schooners."
Spinnaker: A modern adaptation of a jib-shaped sail, often seen set from the top masthead and boomed out from the mast. It is made of light canvas, and hoists to the topmast-head, and is boomed out from the mast. Some cutters carry enormous spinnakers, containing in one sail nearly as much canvas as is spread in mainsail and topsail. A spinnaker is a very handy sail, and preferable to a squaresail in light weather.
Steady!: An order after the helm has been put to port or starboard, to put it no farther in either direction, but bring it back amidships. When the wind is fair, an order given to a steersman to "Steady!" is to keep the helm as it is.
Tack: The lower weather corner of a sail.