1. (Nautical Terms) (intr) (of a fore-and-aft sail) to shift suddenly from one side of the vessel to the other when running before the wind, as the result of allowing the wind to catch the leech
2. (Nautical Terms) to cause (a sailing vessel) to gybe or (of a sailing vessel) to undergo gybing
n
(Nautical Terms) an instance of gybing
[C17: from obsolete Dutch gijben (now gijpen), of obscure origin]
Dom Bolangaro, skipper of Tradewind, was awarded a special prize with the "Conspicuous Seamanship" trophy for managing to get the gybe mark caught on his rudder towards the end of yesterday's race.
Three sessions later she's a confident intermediate, and suddenly I'm hearing nothing but tack, gybe, tiller and boom, and when shall we move nearer to the coast?
This was fantastic at first as we were making great progress but I spoke too soon and in the early hours we did what is known as a "Chinese Gybe" which in ordinary English means we were hit by a strong gust that knocked us over sideways, ie the boat was at 90 degrees to its normal upright position.
GYBE! drifts through the gap between the (North) American dream and its waking reality: lost factories and farms, religion, and endless highways to nowhere.
Every time we tack and gybe, we have to drop and hoist these great big boards and that is really hard work because they have all the weight of the boat and crew on them.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.