Nautical Terminology

[JumbleDuck]

Repeating your post doesn't make it better or more accurate.

It couldn't, dear boy, but some people only learn from repitition.

However, I must take you up on "Floors'. Most people who know anything about boats, and particularly about their construction, know that the term refers to a cross-member, and has nothing to do with the surface that is walked on. Why change this?

Because most boats don't have crossmembers any more and most boats do have things you walk on. Sure, keep the old meaning where it's useful, but there is no point in getting all huffy when people use the new one if it works for them.

That's the thing that baffles me most about all this ... how very, very much some people seem to care about the terms other people use on their boats.

 

[theoldsalt]

...........Because most boats don't have crossmembers any more and most boats do have things you walk on....................

So what holds up the cabin sole and separates it from the hull on "modern" boats if not the floors?

 

[dom]

So what holds up the cabin sole and separates it from the hull on "modern" boats if not the floors?

Modern floorboards tend to rest on the inner-liner honeycomb thingamajig :nonchalance:

 

[Poignard]

So what holds up the cabin sole and separates it from the hull on "modern" boats if not the floors?

Tins of Old Speckled Hen?

 

[NealB]

Tins of Old Speckled Hen?

Great answer!

 

[JumbleDuck]

So what holds up the cabin sole and separates it from the hull on "modern" boats if not the floors?

Stretchers or bearers. A floor ties the frames to the keelson, and it's quite possible that GRP boats don't have any. Mine doesn't.

 

[NormanS]

Stretchers or bearers. A floor ties the frames to the keelson, and it's quite possible that GRP boats don't have any. Mine doesn't.

Woteva.

 

[Simondjuk]

Stretchers or bearers. A floor ties the frames to the keelson, and it's quite possible that GRP boats don't have any. Mine doesn't.

The first is a thing for carrying injured people. The second are people who carry an injury victim who didn't make it. In relation to a boat, they're just as much jargon as the word aft is to the jargonophobic.

You need to rethink. The De-Jargonised New Non-Nautical Nautical Dictionary can't be more confusing and contain more jargon than the Old Nautical Dictionary. That'd be plain stupid. Oh, wait....

 

[Poignard]

Another nautical meaning for "stretcher" :

Lengths of wood used at each end of a hammock to prevent it closing around the user.

 

[NormanS]

Another nautical meaning for "stretcher" :

Lengths of wood used at each end of a hammock to prevent it closing around the user.

Or what we used to use, (many still do) to lift up the centre of the clothes line.

 

[Simondjuk]

Clothes line? Can't find that in the Old Nautical Dictionary. Will it be in the new one?

 

[JumbleDuck]

The first is a thing for carrying injured people. The second are people who carry an injury victim who didn't make it. In relation to a boat, they're just as much jargon as the word aft is to the jargonophobic.

Of course, but if one is going to get particular about the use of the word "floor" one really ought to know what a "floor" is, dontcha think? Otherwise one risks unintentional irony.

 

[Poignard]

Or what we used to use, (many still do) to lift up the centre of the clothes line.

That would be after you'd washed them with a possin-stick. And added a bit of Dolly Blue to make the whites look whiter.

 

[theoldsalt]

Another confusion is the term ceiling (not sure of the spelling). I have always thought this to be the inner lining of the side of the boat not the bit above your head. (sailed old gaffers in my youth)

 

[JumbleDuck]

Another confusion is the term ceiling. I have always thought this to be the inner lining of the side of the boat not the bit above your head. (sailed old gaffers in my youth)

Part of the issue is changed construction methods for boats. The deck of a 1930's Hillyard would have been made of hundreds of bits with dozens of names while the equivalent on a 2015 Bavaria is a single GRP moulding with some holes cut in it. Same with the hull: no ribs, floors, keelsons, stems and so on, just one big lump of plastic. For most leisure sailors the old meanings just aren't needed any more, so it's no wonder that words like "floor" find new and logical homes.

Did you know, by the way, that the shiny round thing on a car's wheel is a "nave plate"? The "hub cap" is the small cap on the, erm, hub.

 

[Bru]

Tins of Old Speckled Hen?

Tins? TINS????? Philistine. Only bottled ale is permissible in the Beer Hold aboard my ship

 

[nedr]

Anyway, it's not "toilet", it's "lavatory", or if you prefer, "loo". I'll stick to "heads", the natural habitat of bottoms.

Except when talking of politicians, in which case bottoms appear to be the natural habitat of heads!

 

[Corribee Boy]

Another confusion is the term ceiling (not sure of the spelling). I have always thought this to be the inner lining of the side of the boat not the bit above your head. (sailed old gaffers in my youth)

I've heard 'Ceiling' used on barges referring, I believe, to what would be the sole on a yacht. I then wondered if it was in fact 'Sealing' as being the layer that kept the cargo dry?

 

[trapezeartist]

https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

For anyone who may be confused by the land-lubberly, un-nautical, ambiguous and confusing terminology, he means "The Bow Fell Off".

Merry Christmas to all, and may your snafflebrackets hold their polish.

 

[lampshuk]

Except when talking of politicians, in which case bottoms appear to be the natural habitat of heads!

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