Crossword Genius

Announced they'd holes in their sail off the coast there (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

islets

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'announced they'd holes in their sail off' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'the coast there' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'isles' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for islets that I've seen is " small keys".)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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