My Boat Works

3 Responses to “Nautical Oddities”

1. Jerr Says:
   October 18th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

   The bell rope is the only rope on a boat. All the rest are lines when they are unused. If they are used to raise something, they’re halyards and if they’re used to trim something, they’re sheets.

2. Jerr Says:
   January 18th, 2010 at 3:53 pm

   The gollywhomper was a gennaker used for only a few years in the 1870s, raised on the foremast and covering the entire side of the ship, with the clew brought to the stern. It was a horribly inefficient sail, made right after the introduction of the spinnaker and has the distinction of being the largest sail on a boat – It’s a great piece of trivia to win a beer off a racing boat crew!

3. Jerr Says:
   January 18th, 2010 at 3:57 pm

   A ceiling you can lean on Floors are usually called floors on boats, unless they’re raised, as in a cockpit – Then they’re soles. Interior walls are bulkheads and ceilings when they are adjacent to and follow the hull. Ceilings on a boat are overheads, windows are ports (even the starboard port!), unless they are built into the cabin roof or deck, when they’re portlights. In common usage, windows are called windows as long as they are mounted as a vehicle window and if they’re hinged, they’re hatches if they’re on a horizontal surface or ports if they’re on a more vertical surface.

   Are you confused yet? Some years ago a friend asked me to take a visiting French friend sailing – This guy loves sailing and has his own boat in Niece. I used to be conversant in French and looked forward to the day. Because of the unique use of terminology in sailing, we could talk about land things together but had no idea about sailing terms! We had a great day sailing and laughing about the strange terminology in both languages.

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