20 / AUG / 2026 · skippercheck.net/crossword
⚓ Daily Maritime Crossword
20 / AUG / 2026 — archive puzzle. The world's first maritime-only crossword — 259-term nautical corpus.
Across
Down
Finished Thursday's puzzle? Try Wednesday's previous too
You're looking at the 20 / AUG / 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 20 / AUG / 2026, so your time and hint count still rank against the global leaderboard.
If you solved this Thursday grid, don't stop — 19 / AUG / 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 — 19 / AUG / 2026
Newspaper-style: today's page publishes the full solution to Wednesday's puzzle (15 maritime terms). Today's answers stay hidden until tomorrow — play the grid above, or replay Wednesday's grid.
Across
- To bind or secure with line or webbing (4) — LASH
- A drum with a handle (manual) or motor (electric/hydraulic) that provides mechanical advantage when sheeting or hoisting… (5) — WINCH
- Length Overall — the maximum fore-and-aft hull length, excluding bowsprits and pulpits unless specifically included (3) — LOA
- A navigable stretch of water — usually marked with buoyage — where depth is sufficient for safe passage (7) — CHANNEL
- A pivoting keel that can be raised into a trunk to reduce draft and lowered to resist leeway (11) — CENTERBOARD
- The aft end of the vessel (5) — STERN
- A pyrotechnic distress signal — handheld red flares are for close-range visibility, parachute red flares for long-range,… (5) — FLARE
- The steering control — tiller or wheel (4) — HELM
Down
- A line used to hoist, hold up, or lower a sail (7) — HALYARD
- A through-hull valve that can be opened or closed to admit water to, or prevent water from entering, the boat through en… (7) — SEACOCK
- The main body of the vessel, excluding the rig, spars, sails, and appendages (4) — HULL
- Weight — usually carried low in the keel — that lowers the centre of gravity and gives the boat stability and righting moment (7) — BALLAST
- The line permanently attached to the bow of a dinghy or tender (7) — PAINTER
- A point of sail with the wind forward of, abeam, or aft of the beam but not dead astern — close, beam, or broad reach (5) — REACH
- The spars, standing rigging, and sail plan collectively — or the act of rigging the boat for sea (3) — RIG
Great for studying COLREGs, VHF procedure, navigation marks, rigging and seamanship vocabulary — or just as a spoiler if you got stuck.