Sailing Terminology - why on earth is it so silly?!

[pistonbroak]

Mahatma Bag said:

"Take a bight of the lazy guy from leeward under the foot of the sail, flake the spinny halyard, trip the pole and letterbox it"!!
Anybody guess what we want to happen here?

FFS WE'RE SINKING

[tank slapper]

markmullen said:

Simpo Two said:

Much of it goes back to the early days of sail. 'Starboard', for example, is a corruption of 'steerboard' which was a large panel lowered into the water to assist steerage, like a keel. You can still see them on Thames barges.

IIRC it came from Norse boats, Port being the opposite side of the steerboard as when you berth the boat you don't want to smash the steerboard against the dock wall.

An easy way to remember Port and Starboard and nav lights is "Port is Red that is Left on the table" - it also helps with drinking etiquette.

Starboard does indeed come from 'steerboard', but that is not what you see on Thames barges. They have lee boards, which are lowered into the water to help stop sideways movement when reaching or tacking. Barges are flat bottomed and don't have keels which would normally perform that function. The origin of port is not quite so clear, though what you suggest is certainly possible. The navy switched to using port instead or larboard in the late 1800s as it was less likely to be misheard.

[cptsideways]

Its so us windsurfer's can spot them a mile away when down the pub, all we know is we can go faster them: nerrr nerrrr nerrr na nerrr


Also those rope bits are great for hanging onto when the winds drops & the tide starts ripping & the tied up boats start moving & you know its time to hang onto em

[RobM77]

tank slapper said:

markmullen said:

Simpo Two said:

Much of it goes back to the early days of sail. 'Starboard', for example, is a corruption of 'steerboard' which was a large panel lowered into the water to assist steerage, like a keel. You can still see them on Thames barges.

IIRC it came from Norse boats, Port being the opposite side of the steerboard as when you berth the boat you don't want to smash the steerboard against the dock wall.

An easy way to remember Port and Starboard and nav lights is "Port is Red that is Left on the table" - it also helps with drinking etiquette.

Starboard does indeed come from 'steerboard', but that is not what you see on Thames barges. They have lee boards, which are lowered into the water to help stop sideways movement when reaching or tacking. Barges are flat bottomed and don't have keels which would normally perform that function. The origin of port is not quite so clear, though what you suggest is certainly possible. The navy switched to using port instead or larboard in the late 1800s as it was less likely to be misheard.

This is probably rubbish, but I heard that the "star board" was a board that the navigator stood on to look at the stars/sun. It was positioned on the right hand side of the boat because the majority of boats were build in the East and sailed West. (i.e. Portugal to the Americas). Because of this great big board on the right hand side, they had to pull up to the port on the left hand side. Is that just a myth?

[Mahatma Bag]

cptsideways said:

Its so us windsurfer's can spot them a mile away when down the pub, all we know is we can go faster them: nerrr nerrrr nerrr na nerrr

Oh really? Check out the first fifteen seconds of this video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=24L8fk4DgKs

[tank slapper]

RobM77 said:

This is probably rubbish, but I heard that the "star board" was a board that the navigator stood on to look at the stars/sun. It was positioned on the right hand side of the boat because the majority of boats were build in the East and sailed West. (i.e. Portugal to the Americas). Because of this great big board on the right hand side, they had to pull up to the port on the left hand side. Is that just a myth?

What about when they go the other way then? I suspect that is pretty much a myth.

[cptsideways]

Mahatma Bag said:

cptsideways said:

Its so us windsurfer's can spot them a mile away when down the pub, all we know is we can go faster them: nerrr nerrrr nerrr na nerrr

Oh really? Check out the first fifteen seconds of this video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=24L8fk4DgKs

Feck!!! But thats cheating, how many crew per mph though

[Schmalex]

s2art said:

RobM77 said:

s2art said:

pistonbroak said:

s2art said:

And BTW I would like to see you to come up with alternatives for some of thio terms.

OK.

Port : LEFT
Starboard : RIGHT
AFT : BACK
BROW : FRONT

Not just the easy ones.

I'll have it to sailors if they have obscure terms for obscure things, but left, right back and forward?

This poor girl on the TV programme was trying to learn all this stuff and I just imagined me teaching her to drive a racing car. I could start straight away assuming she spoke English - no need to explain strange terminology - much more accessible. Maybe this is like when I'm making something in the garage and my Dad turns up and says "ah, I bet you don't know what that tool's called". The fact that I'm using it properly to do something (the end of it as far as I'm concerned!) doesn't appear to be the focal point at all!

Well, terms like 'clutch' are not self describing are they. I suppose you could say 'depress the pedal that decouples the engine from the transmission' but its a bit unwieldy. So we invent a short word which means all that, and so did the sailors of yore for their terms.

We have clutches on yachts too - they are used for jamming halyards, pennants, outhalls, vangs, footlines, tacklines (or many different types of rope) etc, etc, off.

We also saw someone pull a fantastic Chinese this afternoon & then get their A-Sail completely wrapped round their forestay & try ot take their Code 2 overboard....

Like many different things in life, there is a whole bunch of weird terminonlogy that sounds totally out place if not used in comtext. However, in a race, it is necessary to use specific language to make sure that whoever you are asking to do something does not:

A) Pull the wrong bit of string & break something on the boat
B) Pull the wrong bit of string & break something on themselves
C) Pull the wrong bit of string & break something on me

When sailing in breezy conditions, there is a huge amount of load & pressure on certain things, so without being specific in orders, things can go horribly, horribly wrong. That's where the terminology comes in.

[Schmalex]

pistonbroak said:

Mahatma Bag said:

"Take a bight of the lazy guy from leeward under the foot of the sail, flake the spinny halyard, trip the pole and letterbox it"!!
Anybody guess what we want to happen here?

FFS WE'RE SINKING

You are going for a drop. But, you're not setting up for a float....

Edited by Schmalex on Monday 6th August 22:38

[chris_tivver]

Mahatma Bag said:

"Take a bight of the lazy guy from leeward under the foot of the sail, flake the spinny halyard, trip the pole and letterbox it"!!
Anybody guess what we want to happen here?

Gybe float drop

Except that no-one who does that manouvre ever uses the 'proper' terms anyway. Racers refer to green string, red string etc

p.s. good luck to anyone on the Fastnet next week. I'll think of you when I hear the rain splatter on the windows and I pour myself a nice big whisky

[syko]

Parrot of Doom said:

Because crews lived on ships, not land, and therefore developed their own vocabulary.

And a pouch within which they keep their young, who are born no more than a few grammes of wriggling pink squidge.

[Famous Graham]

Marki said:

Ahhhh me heartys , ye be a land lubber and no mistake ahhhhhhhh

You have a woman's purse my lord!

I'll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I'll wager it's never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it.

[tank slapper]

Schmalex said:

When sailing in breezy conditions, there is a huge amount of load & pressure on certain things, so without being specific in orders, things can go horribly, horribly wrong. That's where the terminology comes in.

Yes, it's easy to underestimate the forcs involved until you've seen it. Genoa and spinnaker sheets in a strong breeze can be so tight they are like solid bars.

Sometimes things you don't need to make a mistake: Click

[Roger McLittriss]

Famous Graham said:

Marki said:

Ahhhh me heartys , ye be a land lubber and no mistake ahhhhhhhh

You have a woman's purse my lord!

I'll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I'll wager it's never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it.

Ah, so you DO have some spunk in yer!

[Pigeon]

RobM77 said:

In cycling we have 'cadence', which is logical and IIRC is the only unusual word to learn.

"Chain ring" instead of "front sprocket"
Some other weird term for "rear sprocket"
"Bottom bracket" instead of "crank bearing (housing)"
etc. etc.

And don't get me started on the threads...

[DBSV8]

right going for a dump


wheres the............. HEADS

[pikey]

DBSV8 said:

right going for a dump


wheres the............. HEADS

So called because...?

On the early boats the "toilet" was not much more than a hole at the head (front) of the boat. The shit would not only disappear, but the water coming back in from the sea would clean the area. Simple, but effective.


I wrote about the heads once in one of my logs. You'd never believe that going to the toilet could be so difficult...

Log said:

On the boat there are 2 toilets. The primary reason for this is that only 1 can be used at a time, depending on which tack (side) you are sailing on. As the boat is always going upwind, we are heeled (leaning) over about 35 degrees all the time so there is always a low side and a high side. Each of the toilets has a ratchet system which allows one to angle the bowl by (up to) 35 degrees to make it more or less horizontal.

To flush there is a manual hand pump. One must pump about 20 times to generate enough pressure to suck the waste through a tube that runs up the back of the room, to about head height and down, out of the boat. It is only possible to create this pressure on the low side as the angle on the high side would make it (near) impossible.

So, simple enough, one only uses the low side toilet when 'dropping off the kids'. Now... lets say you're on the one tack using the low side heads when all of a sudden you realise the boat is tacking (turning)... your low side is not only about to become the high side but the ratchet system has the bowl angled by 35 degrees the wrong way... very soon one is going to have a major problem and so this is where the pump & dump technique comes in. One pumps furiously to finish the business before the low side is then a high whilst the business is ongoing. Quite a tricky procedure and one which has been perfected by those who've already done 6 months on the boat but one that has caught out the unfortunate few!

[XJSJohn]

pikey said:

Log said:

On the boat there are 2 toilets. The primary reason for this is that only 1 can be used at a time, depending on which tack (side) you are sailing on. As the boat is always going upwind, we are heeled (leaning) over about 35 degrees all the time so there is always a low side and a high side. Each of the toilets has a ratchet system which allows one to angle the bowl by (up to) 35 degrees to make it more or less horizontal.

To flush there is a manual hand pump. One must pump about 20 times to generate enough pressure to suck the waste through a tube that runs up the back of the room, to about head height and down, out of the boat. It is only possible to create this pressure on the low side as the angle on the high side would make it (near) impossible.

So, simple enough, one only uses the low side toilet when 'dropping off the kids'. Now... lets say you're on the one tack using the low side heads when all of a sudden you realise the boat is tacking (turning)... your low side is not only about to become the high side but the ratchet system has the bowl angled by 35 degrees the wrong way... very soon one is going to have a major problem and so this is where the pump & dump technique comes in. One pumps furiously to finish the business before the low side is then a high whilst the business is ongoing. Quite a tricky procedure and one which has been perfected by those who've already done 6 months on the boat but one that has caught out the unfortunate few!

....

even more so because you are writing your "log"



ahem sorry ... childish humour and all that ...

[pikey]

XJSJohn said:

....

even more so because you are writing your "log"

ahem sorry ... childish humour and all that ...

BOOM BOOM!!


I was kinda expecting that

PS. Bored? More logs, more shitting stories Click. I joined the boat as an amateur (well unless dinghy sailing counts) and was confused by the terminology. By the time I got off, it was second nature - it's just what you called things during sailing life, almost like another language.

[XJSJohn]

pikey said:

PS. Bored? More logs, more shitting stories Click. I joined the boat as an amateur (well unless dinghy sailing counts) and was confused by the terminology. By the time I got off, it was second nature - it's just what you called things during sailing life, almost like another language.

Which boat were you on ... (sure i will find out as i read) ...

Back in the early days when it was the British Steel challenge i did a few shakedown events (few Cherbourg races and one to St Malo) on the Hoffbrau boat.

Never got the cash / time / courage up to sign up as a legger