P.F.D.

Personal Flotation Device — a lifejacket, buoyancy aid, or similar wearable buoyancy.

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Related P-terms

Pay out

To let out or surrender a line in a controlled way.

Pulpit

A stainless-steel safety rail around the bow (or stern, where it is usually called a pushp…

PLB

Personal Locator Beacon — a small 406 MHz satellite distress beacon registered to an indiv…

Pintle

The pin of a rudder fitting that drops into a gudgeon on the transom, allowing the rudder …

Port tack

Sailing with the wind coming over the port side; under the COLREGs, a port-tack vessel nor…

Parasailor

A proprietary symmetric downwind sail with a horizontal aerofoil slot through the middle, …

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