Crossword Genius

Races round a ship and causes trouble (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

harasses

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'causes trouble' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'races round a ship' is the wordplay.
'races' becomes 'hares' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'round' indicates putting letters inside.
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'a'+'ss'='ass'
'hares' enclosing 'ass' is 'HARASSES'.

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for harasses that I've seen before include "Pesters and annoys" , "Badgers" , "Annoys continually, as rashes may" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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