{"id":215,"date":"2012-10-01T04:58:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T08:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/?p=215"},"modified":"2015-07-12T14:13:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T18:13:27","slug":"boats-yachts-lines-ropes-and-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/boats-yachts-lines-ropes-and-all-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Boats, Yachts, Lines, Ropes and All That"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in several Maryland newspapers, 2\/23\/90 \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e<\/span><\/p>\n

Boats, Yachts, Lines, Ropes and All That<\/strong> \u0004\u000e\u0003<\/span><\/p>\n

by \u0004\u000e\bTom Dove<\/span><\/p>\n

“Would you call that a yacht or a boat?”, the nice lady asked. “Is that a boat or a ship?”, the tourist inquired. “What do you call that string over there – a rope or a line?”, \u0004\u001c\u001athe sailing guest queried.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Boating has one of the most colorful and extensive \u0004\u001cvocabularies of any field of human endeavor, evolving as it has \u0004\u001cover hundreds of years. For instance:\u0004\u001c A rope seldom is a rope. Once a piece of rope has a specific \u0004\u001cuse aboard a vessel, it is generally called a line, just as a generic \u0004\u001cphrase spoken by a young man to a young lady is a line.<\/span><\/p>\n

A boat is secured to the pier by \u0002docklines\u0002, each with an \u0004\u001cindividual title: bowline (pronounced “bough” line, not “beau” line), \u0004\u001csternline, springline or breastline, depending on the point of \u0004\u001c\u0019attachment to the vessel.\u0004\u001c A bowline (pronounced “beau” line) is a knot and not a rope at \u0005\u001call. Is that not (not “knot”) perfectly logical?\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

If that same piece of rope is attached to the bow of a dinghy, \u0004\u001c(which is merely a small boat propelled by oars, sail or small \u0004\u001cmotor) it becomes a \u0002\u0001\u0001painter\u0002\u0001. You thought a painter was someone \u0004\u001cwho applied liquid coatings to surfaces, didn’t you?<\/span><\/p>\n

If that rope raises a sail, it becomes a \u0002\u0001\u0001halyard\u0002\u0001 (sometimes spelled \u0002\u0001\u0001halliard\u0002). If it pulls the sail down or out on a mast or boom, it becomes a \u0002\u0001\u0001downhaul\u0002\u0001 or an \u0002\u0001\u0001outhaul\u0002\u0001 – that is, unless it \u0004\u001cpulls the sail through a little hole near its forward corner. Then \u0004\u001cit’s a \u0002\u0001\u0001Cunningham\u0002\u0001. Who could escape such clear logic?\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Or that same rope might tie the sail up around the boom. Then, it’s a \u0002\u0001\u0001reef point\u0002\u0001. If it holds the boom up off the deck, it’s a \u0002topping lift\u0002.\u00a0If it pulls a genoa lead inward, it is a \u0002\u0001\u0001Barber hauler\u0002\u0001, but has nothing to do with getting your teenage son to get \u0004\u001ca haircut.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a rope adjusts a sail’s position, it becomes a \u0002\u0001\u0001sheet\u0002\u0001, of \u0004\u001ccourse. Thus, sheets are used to trim sails on boats and not to \u0004\u001ccover berths, and that’s no bunk.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are \u0002\u0001\u0001pendants\u0002\u0001 and \u0002\u0001\u0001pennants\u0002\u0001, pronounced the same.\u00a0A \u0004\u001cpendant is a short line (that’s right, a piece of rope – you’re \u0004\u001ccatching on now) that attaches a corner of a jib to the boat, unless \u0004\u001cit is a short line that attaches the boat to its mooring buoy.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

A pennant is a flag. That is, unless it is a frayed piece of rope that makes the boat look unkempt. Then it is an \u0002\u0001\u0001Irish \u0004\u001cpennant\u0002\u0001. My wife, a fair colleen of the Emerald Isle, gets her Eire \u0004\u001c\u0016raised by that phrase.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Enough of the lines. Perhaps you should do as one of my \u0004\u001cracing friends does. He simply calls them all “strings” to irritate \u0004\u001cthe traditionalists in the fleet. \u0004\u001c\u001e<\/span><\/p>\n

Sticks have fancy names, too.\u0004\u001c If a stick is stuck into the top of the boat and holds a sail, it is a \u0002\u0001\u0001mast\u0002\u0001. A horizontal stick attached to a mast is a \u0002\u0001\u0001boom\u0002\u0001, \u0004\u001cprobably named for the resonant sound it makes as it ricochets off \u0004\u001c\u0010a sailor’s head.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

A stick that supports the top of a quadrilateral fore-and-aft sail is called a \u0002\u0001\u0001gaff\u0002\u0001. To a fisherman, a gaff is a hooked pole that \u0004\u001ccan be used to retrieve fish close to the boat. It would be a gaffe \u0004\u001c\u0019to call it anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some skippers refer to the main cabin as the \u0002\u0001\u0001saloon\u0002\u00a0while others call it a \u0002<\/span>
\n \u0001\u0001salon\u0002\u0001. Saloon is the proper English term – salon is \u0004\u001c\u001ca Madison Avenue invention. \u0002<\/span><\/p>\n

A \u0001\u0001boat\u0002\u0001 is a vessel that is small enough to be hoisted aboard a \u0002ship\u0002\u0001. How’s that for a self-contained definition?<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, there is the mystery of what constitutes a \u0002\u0001\u0001yacht\u0002\u0001. As \u0004\u001ca general rule, if someone else refers to your boat as a yacht, it \u0004\u001cprobably is, at least to that person. Etiquette dictates that you do \u0005\u001cnot refer to your own vessel as a yacht unless it is so big or so \u0004\u001costentatious that the term clearly applies.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

There is an interesting exception. Any sailing vessel in a race \u0004\u001cis a yacht, by definition of the racing rules. Thus, a 10-foot dinghy \u0004\u001cthat is normally carried aboard a 35-foot motorboat is a yacht \u0004\u001cwhen she is racing against other 10-foot dinghies while the “mother \u0004\u001cship” probably should be called a boat.\u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

Get a nautical dictionary and put some of those neat words \u0004\u001ctogether randomly to make phrases to drop at the next party. For \u0004\u001c\bexample: \u0004\u001c “I belayed my pennant to the topsail saloon halyard.” \u0004\u001c “The waves broke clean over the springline downhaul.”\u0004\u001c “We were six days out of Norfolk when the painter \u0004\u001coverhauled the reef points and fouled the bilge.” \u0004\u001c<\/span><\/p>\n

You certainly will impress someone. \u0004\u000e<\/span><\/p>\n

— The End —<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Each part of this ship has a unique name. Be thankful that modern sailboats are simpler.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published in several Maryland newspapers, 2\/23\/90 \u0004\u000e \u0004\u000e Boats, Yachts, Lines, Ropes and All That \u0004\u000e\u0003 by \u0004\u000e\bTom Dove “Would you call that a yacht or a boat?”, the nice lady asked. “Is that a boat or a ship?”, the tourist inquired. “What do you call that string over there – a rope or Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomdove.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}