Dip the rope

[AuntyRinum]

There are NO ropes in use on a sailing boat.

MD

Sailing boats are a mass of ropes; each rope has a unique name e.g. main halliard, starboard genoa sheet, heaving line, etc. but they are still ropes. Which is why new sailors have to "learn the ropes".

 

[JumbleDuck]

There are NO ropes in use on a sailing boat.

My rope locker is full of ropes.

 

[mobeydick]

Sailing boats are a mass of ropes; each rope has a unique name e.g. main halliard, starboard genoa sheet, heaving line, etc. but they are still ropes. Which is why new sailors have to "learn the ropes".

Nope they are all lines, until refering to a specific purpose when the may be called sheets etc.

I am sure the original expression was 'learn the ropes are called lines on a boat' or similar

MD

 

[mobeydick]

My rope locker is full of ropes.

Have another look - you will find they are lines.

MD

 

[lw395]

There are NO ropes in use on a sailing boat.

MD

Both my boats have bolt ropes for a start.

 

[Aardee]

Blimey, is this still going?

 

[awol]

My wife claims my boat has a misanthrope when I'm on board.

 

[AuntyRinum]

Nope they are all lines, until refering to a specific purpose when the may be called sheets etc.

I am sure the original expression was 'learn the ropes are called lines on a boat' or similar

MD

Rubbish. The statement that there are no ropes on a boat is a schoolboy joke designed to make the person who makes the statement look good. I have heard it many times and each time it's the person making the statement who ends up looking as if they don't know what they're talking about.
I've already given the correct answer above but, if you don't think there are any ropes on a sailing boat, what is a bolt rope?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Have another look - you will find they are lines.

Nope. They are ropes. Definitely ropes. Ropes made of rope. All ropey. Highly ropelike. Possessed of ropeness.

 

[Spyro]

When I buy a new bit of rope in a shop it's rope. It's still rope when I get it onto my boat. It's my boat and I'll call it what I like.
It's a bit like saying there are no sails. There are Jib, genoas, spinnakers, mizzens, chutes. etc They are still sails and ropes are still ropes they might have a particular purpose and be called something for that purpose but they are ropes.

 

[adwuk]

Have another look - you will find they are lines.

That'll be why there's a well known line manufacturing company called Marlow ... oh no... wait a minute...

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Nope. They are ropes. Definitely ropes. Ropes made of rope. All ropey. Highly ropelike. Possessed of ropeness.

Rope can be made from wire as well.

 

[awol]

Rope can be made from wire as well.

..... and pearls.

 

[James_Calvert]

Rope can be made from wire as well.

According to my late father, a Sapper, a rope is always a wire one. The other stuff, at least in the sizes we use on our boats, is not a rope either, it is a lashing. Not that he was pedantic about it!

As an aside, why is a bowline a knot rather than a line on the bow (or indeed tied in a bow)?

 

[daviddb]

I'm pleased to read that on the good ship Elizmor this forum's favorite blogger consistently speaks of 'lines'

 

[RichardS]

Just got out my 2015 Liros catalogue which says on the front "Liros - Unlimited Rope Solutions" and the section I am interested in is called "Yacht Rope" The individual ropes are then further described as being suitable for moorings lines, control lines, sheets, halyards etc

Richard

 

[mobeydick]

Nope! You can have ROPE on a boat, but not ROPES. Rope is what lines are made from. Stored in a rope locker.

Thinking about it, I bet the expression was originally 'know your rope' (ie how to make lines)

see also

http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nau...rds=1&uid=default&Term=rope&submit=Look+it+up!

MD

 

[SimonFa]

Hmm, 26 pages so far.. At this rate it could catch up to that thread in The Lounge on Greece which is over 200.

Anyway, what do I call that coiled thingummy that last week was a preventor, last year got used as a shoreline and when I use my cruising chute may will become a sheet? Shurely its a rope until it has a use, then it is referred to by its use?

There's no wonder non sailors look at us as if we are barmy sometimes.

 

[mobeydick]

Hmm, 26 pages so far.. At this rate it could catch up to that thread in The Lounge on Greece which is over 200.

Anyway, what do I call that coiled thingummy that last week was a preventor, last year got used as a shoreline and when I use my cruising chute may will become a sheet? Shurely its a rope until it has a use, then it is referred to by its use?

There's no wonder non sailors look at us as if we are barmy sometimes.

Nope you used a line for various purposes.

I have in front of me my Marlow LINE Solutions Guide.

Marlow Ropes do indeed sell 'ropes' but as in selling quantities of rope of different contructions/materials. If they sold only one type of contruction/material, they would be called Marlow Rope, and you would buy rope from them, no matter how many pieces/reels. To make into lines.

MD

 

[mobeydick]

As an aside, why is a bowline a knot rather than a line on the bow (or indeed tied in a bow)?

I was reading 'Afloat and Ashore' by James Fenimore Cooper (the Last of the Mohicans guy) - an interesting read if you like lots of nautical terminology and some insight into just-post-revolution America - and 'sailing with a taught bow-line' was frequently referenced when sailing hard on the wind. This line (not rope) was used to pull the edge of a square sail towards the bow, and hence into the wind. Maybe they used a bowline (knot) over the end of the spar and the line gave its name to the knot?
MD