Irritable report about sailor heading for boat (6)
I believe the answer is:
crabby
'irritable' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'report about sailor heading for boat' is the wordplay.
'report' becomes 'cry' (**).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'heading for' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'boat' is 'b'.
'ab'+'b'='abb'
'cry' placed around 'abb' is 'CRABBY'.
(Other definitions for crabby that I've seen before include "Bad-tempered, morose" , "Peevish" , "Ill-tempered" , "Temperamental" , "Lrritable, bad-tempered" .)