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Thanks, Grunger, I missed that! The paper's away in the recycling, so I can't have a look now. I'll make a start on today's puzzle.

Malone

I am sure you solved it quickly. I missed Bailiwick, not thinking of Wick.

Watched a lot of Olympics, loved "she's got great boatship". I never knew the difference between a ship and a boat. I should cocoa! if I knew what it meant.

That's an interesting one, grunger. There's no such word as boatship but there is boatmanship. Collins gives boatsmanship as an American word (by analogy with craftsmanship, I suppose) but the OED does not.

No boatwomanship or boatladyship though. Sorry.

A clue for us, for everyone in Pedants United...

Pedant and stoic clash explosively (10).

NB As it's from today's crossword, the answer isn't needed (or wanted!).

Orson

Thanks. I like boatmanship and oarswoman, but I think oarswomanship would be wrong. I am happy with oarsmanship for a woman.

Malone

I havent solved your clue yet but working on it.

Thanks, Grunger. The recent discussions evoked happy memories of the earlier chats involving fo'c'sles, bosuns, bo'suns, bo's'ns and bos'ns....

Very good Malone, though I’m not sure a stoic by nature would ever be explosive

Malone

Yes I enjoyed those. Fo'c's'le and bo''sun are certainly 2 of my favourite words.

As Times 28050 is under discussion I imagine Malone would both love and hate 4d:

Paint entrance for speaker in French department (4, 3)

with its apostrophe but dodgy double homophone relying on both English and French accents.

Thanks Jono, Grunger and Paulhabershon.

Paul... I found that 'Paint entrance...' clue a little irritating. The apostrophe bothered me more than the 'sounds like' ('allegedly sounds like') as I don't like removing necessary apostrophes. The words never look right without them, and can sometimes be quite ... ugly.

Grunger, I had to have Chambers beside me when I was listing the boating words, to ensure the proper distribution of apostrophes.