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Below are a few famous sailors' sayings that will help you to sail better or safer. We are looking for more. Just email us your contribution and who you are, and we will add it below and credit you as the contributor.
"When in doubt, ease sheets out." Many folks float along with their sails pulled in too closely to the center of the boat. This causes the boat to go slower than it would if the sails were placed (set) correctly. The sheets are the lines (ropes) that control where sails are set. When the sails are too close to the center line of the boat, the sheets are pulled in too tightly. To ease a sheet is to let it out. Ease the sheets and out go the sails. The saying does not say how far to ease the sheets, but the next saying helps with that. "When in doubt, ease sheets out" is perhaps the best and simplest advice for proper sail trim. I have handily sailed past many a faster vessel because their sails were pulled in too tight.
"Out until they luff, in until they stop." A sail is said to be luffing when the entire sail is smooth and not rippling except for the forward most edge (the edge called the luff of the sail). If the luff is rippling like a flag, the sail is luffing. This useful saying helps with proper sail trim on all points of sail except for when sailing close hauled. (Close hauled meaning you are sailing your boat as close toward the wind as possible.) "Out until they luff, in until they stop" means ease (let out) your sheets until the sails luff, then haul (pull) the sheets in until the sails stop luffing.
"When in doubt, come about." What does it mean to "come about?" It is one of two turns a sail boat makes that causes the main sail to go from one side of the boat to the other, a tack and a jibe (long "i"). A tack is a turn where the bow (the front) of the boat passes through the direction from which the wind is coming. Cool sailors, and those who wish to confuse their wives with more terms, call a tack "coming about." A jibe is the opposite turn where the stern (back end) of the boat passes through the direction from which the wind is coming. When it is really windy, jibing is scary because not only does the sail go from one side of the boat to the other, but also the boom (pole at the bottom edge of the main sail) changes sides. So in a jibe the boom comes across the cockpit, usually quickly. The cockpit is the place where the crew sit. The crew are the folks who operate the boat or who are just along for the ride. But when the wind is strong and you tack (come about), the boom comes across the cockpit only as fast as you turn the boat. So when it is very windy it is safer to tack than to jibe. How can this accomplish turning to where you want to turn? Well, say the most economical turn based on where you want to go is a jibe through 50 degrees. But it is windy and you are in doubt because as you jibe the boom will come across the cockpit with lightning speed. You can achieve the same result and end up going in the same direction, if you instead of jibing through 50 degrees, you tack through 310 degrees (360 less 50). In so doing you will have saved the crew the fright of a jibe in high wind and saved the boat the stress of a jibe; and in a small sail boat, you might well have saved the boat from tipping over.
"Red, right, returning." This saying has to do with staying in a channel. A channel is where the water is deepest. Channels are marked by buoys, which are objects floating in the water but attached to the bottom with chain or rope. Channel buoys are colored either red or green. Red ones are on one side of the channel and green ones are on the other side. This saying is short for: leave buoys that are colored red on the right hand side of your boat when you are returning. Great, what does "returning" mean? Well, returning means going from a larger body of water to a smaller body of water. Returning would be, for example, sailing from the Chesapeake Bay into a river, or from a river into a creek. Conversely, if you are leaving (sailing from a small body of water to a larger body of water), you leave red buoys on your left and green buoys on your right. But this is all said in "red, right, returning."
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