Boaty Slang

Talulah

Talulah

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Occasionally I overhear instructors going through their deck briefing and I pick up one or two alternative descriptions for things.
"Mechanical Muscle" - Winch
"Clutch" - Valve
"Cheaty Tubes" - Bow Thruster

Any more?
 
It's not slang, but making the 'anchor a-cock-bill' is to have it off the roller, hanging ready to deploy.

I use it as a question to the bow when positioning to anchor, and the bow gets to use it back in confirmation. Most pleasing to use when arriving in a busy anchorage.
 
Simondjuk said:
'anchor a-cock-bill' [...] Most pleasing to use when arriving in a busy anchorage.
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Sorry Simon, that just seems unnecessarily pretentious to me :). Bit like when I was about seven and had been reading nautical books, went out on my grandad's boat just over to Cowes for lunch, and asked my dad "where are we bound?" - to general mirth from the adults present :)

I think you need to be handling a two-ton traditional-pattern anchor on the cathead of a full-rigged ship before you can say "anchor's a-cock-bill" with a straight face :)

Pete
 
Talulah said:
Occasionally I overhear instructors going through their deck briefing and I pick up one or two alternative descriptions for things.
"Mechanical Muscle" - Winch
"Clutch" - Valve
"Cheaty Tubes" - Bow Thruster

Any more?
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Our Port kite halyard was replaced a couple of years back with one in orange with black spots. It has ever since been known as "the tiger halyard". This has been known to throw new crew...
 
A mate of mine with a forty footer has a large cordless right angle drill with a winch adaptor fitted to it

He had a crew member called Eric who used to be on the sheet winches and when Eric was not available my mate used to sail single handed and use the drill to wind in the winches while he helmed

He called the drill Electric Eric

Regards Don
 
Don107 said:
He used to refer to the drill as Electric Eric
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Our autopilot is called George, but I think that's not uncommon. RAF slang from the 1950s apparently.

The vestigial cover that goes round the mast and fills the gap ahead of the stack-pack is known as the "horse rug".

Surprised nobody's yet mentioned the racer's favourites, the "up-fucker" and "down-fucker" :). Or are those not slang any more, since a company in the US includes them in their pack of clutch labels? :D

Pete
 
My son was a regular crew / boatswain on a large racing yacht which sometimes took "corporate" guests. He deliberately used non nautical terms like "downstairs, bathroom, cupboards, boot" etc., to see if he got any reaction. Anybody who corrected his phraseology was singled out for special duties.
 
Kingfisher 2 said:
C*nt-splice .... actually I don't think it was slang but it wouldn't half frighten the girly crew!
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Perfectly good technical term :)

Bowdlerised by a lot of Victorian books into "cut splice", thus some people think that's its real name. But it doesn't involve cutting anything, and it does look like a ****, so it's clear where the truth lies :D

Pete
 
I've read that in the olden days, when they had galvanised rigging wire, one of the treatments to stop it dissolving was to wrap cotton thread in the groove formed by the spiral construction of the wiser. This was called 'c***ing'. The wire was then 'served' by wrapping it in more cotton.
 
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StormNorm said:
I've read that in the olden days, when they had galvanised rigging wire, one of the treatments to stop it dissolving was to wrap cotton thread in the groove formed by the spiral construction of the wiser. This was called 'c***ing'. The wire was then 'served' by wrapping it in more cotton.
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I've done it, halfway up the mast of a square rigger - lots of grease, canvas wrapping, tarred marline, and the bosun's special "black varnish" mix. Not heard it called c***ing - I know it as worming, the other steps being parcelling and serving - but it does make sense because the grooves between the three strands of a laid rope are called the c***lines.

Pete
 
prv said:
Sorry Simon, that just seems unnecessarily pretentious to me :). Bit like when I was about seven and had been reading nautical books, went out on my grandad's boat just over to Cowes for lunch, and asked my dad "where are we bound?" - to general mirth from the adults present :)

I think you need to be handling a two-ton traditional-pattern anchor on the cathead of a full-rigged ship before you can say "anchor's a-cock-bill" with a straight face :)

Pete
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Ah, you've got me wrong Pete. It's not used in a pretentious manner, just a jokey way of enquiring as to the situation on the bow and often spoken in a mock West Country accent for some reason. It's 'WTF are they on about?' looks from those around that pleases. :)
 
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