Bow or Bows?

[Grehan]

Apologies if this is a regularly debated old chestnut - I did try a search without obvious result.

It's in the title.
Is there a difference between 'bow' and 'bows' ?

I've heard/seen the two used interchangeably
Is there an Anglo/American usage difference?

I have a feeling they are the same, except I tend to think (eg) " . . the bow of the yacht cut through the water . . " (ie specific part of the boat) and . . " . . I'm going up to the bows . . " (a more general location).

In French it is 'proue' (prow) so I guess I should also ask about 'prow' which seems to me to relate to a smaller boat/dinghy . . ?

Anyone care to educate me?

BTW Same for 'heads' and 'head' . . . ?

 

[capnsensible]

Suppose you cold say that you got a port bow and a starboard bow, hence bows.

 

[capnsensible]

Get ahead, get a hat......

 

[TC Tuckton]

I thought "head" was a contraction of "cathead", the place in the bow of an 18th century sailing ship where an anchor was stowed alongside. This would provide a useful handhold when squatting outboard...

 

[prv]

I think strictly speaking the very front part that cuts through the water is the stem, then just behind that on either side is the port bow or starboard bow, collectively "the bows".

I would still talk about "the bow of the boat" though.

Pete

 

[johnalison]

I think a boat has to be above a certain size to have "bows". I can't imagine referring to the front end of a pram dinghy in the plural, but I'm not sure that I could be entirely consistent on this.

 

[Prima]

The use of the plural is not at all incorrect or strange, and it very common in nautical parlance. One may speak of the starboard bow or the port bow of a ship, and so another ship coming from either the left or the right would be crossing the ship's bows.

 

[mjcoon]

Get ahead, get a hat......

Do you wear a pair of trousers?? Why?

Mike.

 

[ylop]

I've always understood prow to be the part of the bow above the waterline, I wouldn't particularly use it with dinghies or small boats - indeed I would be most like to use it when there is a significant overhang at the front - i.e. The waterline length is signifcantly shorter than the deck length.

 

[superheat6k]

The heads refers to the general area forward traditionally used as the ships toilet. A head in more modern parlance is a single WC trap amongst a group of 'Heads'. The traditional I was brought up with was 'Heads', as in 'I am going to the aft heads' except where just one was concerned which was then a head.

 

[Tomahawk]

Tomahawk definitely has bows.

Then Tomahawk is a proper boat...

 

[Prima]

Bow
1. The front of a vessel.
2. Either side of the front (or bow) of the vessel, i.e., the port bow and starboard bow. Something ahead and to the left of the vessel is "off the port bow", while something ahead and to the right of the vessel is "off the starboard bow." When "bow" is used in this way, the front of the vessel sometimes is called her bows (plural), a collective reference to her port and starboard bows synonymous with bow (singular) as described in Definition (1).

I've always understood prow to be the part of the bow above the waterline

Prow
a poetical alternative term for bows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_nautical_terms

 

[RichardS]

Tomahawk definitely has bows.

Then Tomahawk is a proper boat...

+1

Richard

 

[mjcoon]

The heads refers to the general area forward traditionally used as the ships toilet. ...

I never really understood that. Equals pissing into the wind. Or emptying the holding tank while sailing downwind...

Mike.

 

[prv]

I never really understood that. Equals pissing into the wind.

Not on a square-rigger.

Pete

 

[Capt Popeye]

Humm might suggest that when indicating one's intended on board movement towards the front of the craft the term 'going forward' can be used, as going to the Bow just might be a move more forward than intended ?

As if one actually passes the Bow one is in the poo, or deep water, or even hot water, depending upon one's lat n long?

 

[prv]

As if one actually passes the Bow one is in the poo, or deep water, or even hot water, depending upon one's lat n long?

Also depending upon one's rig - forward of the bows can be quite a pleasant place to be on the right vessel

Pete

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

Definitely bows, a pink one one each side.
Opps, wrong bow.

 

[alant]

Not on a square-rigger.

Pete

They don't just sail downwind.

 

[prv]

They don't just sail downwind.

Sure, across the wind works too. But they really don't go upwind, so the smell of the heads is never going to be wafting back aft along the deck.

Pete