Where the boats are, of course, nominally female (6)
I believe the answer is:
marina
'where the boats are' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'course nominally female' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'course' could be 'n' and 'n' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'maria' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for marina that I've seen before include "place to moor up?" , "part of harbour?" , "boating facility" , "Pleasure-boat dock" , "Dock for yachts and cruisers" .)