SAILING GLOSSARY

Knots

A knot is the unit of measurement used in navigation to express the speed of a boat or the wind. One knot corresponds to one nautical mile per hour, or approximately 1.852 km/h. For example, a boat traveling at 6 knots covers about 6 nautical miles in one hour, while a 20-knot wind blows at approximately 37 km/h. And contrary to what the name might suggest, no rope is needed to measure speed!