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Sailor's patch of land is speculative (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

abstract

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'speculative' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'sailor's patch of land' is the wordplay.
'sailor's' becomes 'ab's' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'patch of land' becomes 'tract' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'abs'+'tract'='ABSTRACT'

'is' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for abstract that I've seen before include "Take away - theoretical" , "Rothko work?" , "Half-inch" , "Remove; theoretical" , "Theoretical; abstruse" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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