Speaks proudly about the small craft (6)
I believe the answer is:
boasts
'speaks' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'proudly about the small craft' is the wordplay.
'proudly' becomes 'boa' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the small' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects; 'small' suggests an abbreviation).
'craft' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
't' going inside 'ss' is 'sts'.
'boa'+'sts'='BOASTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for boasts that I've seen before include "Brags, shows off" , "Brags, blows" , "crows" , "Brags in praise of oneself" , "Blows one's own trumpet" .)