64 shares

[Liz_I]

Does anyone out there know the definitive answer as to why boats/ships are divided into 64 shares?
Also how long ago did this become the 'norm'? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[cliff]

Traditionally boats had 64 ribs hence 64 shares or so one story goes.

Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity.

 

[sarabande]

it's part of the easy maths way to divide up a unit.

1

1/2

1/4

1/8

1/16

1/32

1/64


and originates in the earliest trading days when the owner wanted to split the risks of voyaging between his financial friends. No decimal or % business in them thar days !

All the "sixty-fourth" shares were sold off and could be split again by the new purchasers, but so long as all the fractions added up to 1, the risks were properly shared out.

 

[Liz_I]

Thanks for that.
There seem to be a few explanations about. Quite liked the Queen Victoria one where the government at that time took 36% tax leaving 64%! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[2Tizwoz]

'it was common in Italian maritime states fund the construction and operation of ships by dividing them into a certain number of shares (24 and 64 were common divisions). Share owners were responsible for funding voyages (not including cargo, which was typically paid for by trading partnerships called commenda) as well as the initial construction capital, and divided up the profits (fees paid by the merchants less costs). This tradition faded away in Venice when that republic's government took over ship ownership, but thrived across the Italian penninsula in Genoa. Ship shares became embedded into maritime law all over Europe'

 

[GeorgeLlewellin]

Start with the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act

 

[Csail]

Sarabande has the correct answer.

 

[dunedin]

It is certainly the tradition, but a bizarre and restrictive one mathematically and practically.
With 64ths you can have equal shares only for 1, 2, 4 & 8 parties
If you use 60 shares, you can cope with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 parties. Hence with a previous yacht share I revised the standard wording to use 60ths

 

[DeeGee]

OOOh, clever.

Means you can have the boat equally shared by 3 owners !!

Brings me back to the old £ s d arguments, why the £ as 240 pence was a better bet than £ of 100. Same reason, divisibility. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif