18 / MAY / 2026 · skippercheck.net/crossword
⚓ Daily Maritime Crossword
18 / MAY / 2026 — archive puzzle. The world's first maritime-only crossword — 259-term nautical corpus.
Across
Down
Finished Monday's puzzle? Try Sunday's previous too
You're looking at the 18 / MAY / 2026 daily maritime crossword — a free nautical puzzle drawn from our 259-term corpus of COLREGs rules, VHF radio procedure, navigation marks, rigging and seamanship vocabulary. Every daily puzzle is deterministic — players worldwide saw exactly the same grid on 18 / MAY / 2026, so your time and hint count still rank against the global leaderboard.
If you solved this Monday grid, don't stop — 17 / MAY / 2026's puzzle is waiting with a fresh layout from the same nautical vocabulary. Warning: some clues lean on COLREGs Rule numbers and IALA buoyage — brush up if you're rusty.
Browse the full crossword archive to replay every past puzzle, or print this one to A4 using the 🖨️ Print button above — solutions are printed upside-down at the bottom of the page, newspaper-style.
Yesterday's clues & answers — 17 / MAY / 2026
Newspaper-style: today's page publishes the full solution to Sunday's puzzle (15 maritime terms). Today's answers stay hidden until tomorrow — play the grid above, or replay Sunday's grid.
Across
- The upper corner of a sail; also, the marine toilet (4) — HEAD
- The pin of a rudder fitting that drops into a gudgeon on the transom, allowing the rudder to swing freely (6) — PINTLE
- A pivoting keel that can be raised into a trunk to reduce draft and lowered to resist leeway (11) — CENTERBOARD
- Wear on a rope, sail, or sheet caused by repeated rubbing against another surface (5) — CHAFE
- The ratio between the length of anchor rode paid out and the depth of water (plus bow height), e (5) — SCOPE
- The aft end of the vessel (5) — STERN
Down
- A thin strip of timber, fibreglass, or carbon inserted into a pocket along the leech of a sail to maintain its aerodynamic shape (6) — BATTEN
- The principal sail set on the (main) mast of a sloop, cutter, ketch, or yawl (8) — MAINSAIL
- A length of rope sewn inside the foot or luff of a sail so the sail can be slid into a groove on the boom or mast (8) — BOLTROPE
- A fixed vertical fin ahead of the rudder, protecting and supporting it (4) — SKEG
- The spars, standing rigging, and sail plan collectively — or the act of rigging the boat for sea (3) — RIG
- A long cone or series of small cones streamed on a bridle from the stern in very heavy weather to slow the boat, keep he… (6) — DROGUE
- A drum with a handle (manual) or motor (electric/hydraulic) that provides mechanical advantage when sheeting or hoisting… (5) — WINCH
- To let a sheet, halyard, or other line run out in a controlled manner (4) — EASE
- Toward, at, or behind the stern (3) — AFT
Great for studying COLREGs, VHF procedure, navigation marks, rigging and seamanship vocabulary — or just as a spoiler if you got stuck.