Pulpit ..... Pushpit!

[Kawasaki]

No, Tom it's a Taffrail, not a Taffy-rail, tho' Kwacka does rail a bit doesn't he?

On my odd adventures into, Scuttle bit section of this Venerable Forum.

I would like to ask 'The Panel'

Where and Why , would you use,

Frawcett knots and Smillen lines.

In relation to Pullpits and Pushpits?

Oh and by the way Mr Rush
My Credentials are imacculate ref various rails.

As a Booking Clerk employed by British Railways in the 60's.

I probably sent a few Peeps ('Off the Rails'
Well deffo where they didn't want to go to

Well , twas the 60's

 

[Tommyrot]

The taffrail is a rail at the top of the transom; an integral part of the structure of the hull, on square riggers and other traditionally rigged vessels used as a fixing point for halliards, sheets and braces.

So my pushpit/stern pulpit/blunt end safety rail is possibly a taffrail then!

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Over here...
It's always the Bow Pulpit and the Stern Pulpit.
Some folks do use the word Pushpit, but seldom.
L

I am not a great fan of tradition. As long as you can communicate that seems to me to be all that matters. If I say "Release the line from the pushpit" all I care is that they do the right line. So, as EVERYONE I have met calls it a pushpit I shall stick with that.

 

[Keen_Ed]

it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (I got into serious trouble at school for that one),

The shot garland story is an urban myth. Not least because shot were kept in well, shot garlands. http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monkey_(colloquial_expression)

I've called a pushpit a pushpit for the last 35 years

 

[Tresner]

.
The taffrail is generally the stern section of the capping rail set on top of the Bulwarks. As modern boats don't generally have bulwarks, the closest they have to a taffrail is where the deck meets the transom on the hull.

I'm happy to learn the name and use for of the taffrail. And here all this time I've been told its sole function was to keep Welsh Sinners from falling overboard! Now who told me that?

 

[LittleShip]

I'm happy to learn the name and use for of the taffrail. And here all this time I've been told its sole function was to keep Welsh Sinners from falling overboard! Now who told me that?

 

[johnalison]

Pushpit occupies a similar place in my life to "pee" in place new "New Pence". Somehow, the awfulness of the modified word seems to sum up my annoyance at having to use it because there is no effective substitute.

 

[Tidewaiter2]

It's not just the spelling, the whole pastime is going to the dogs!

Now there's a spelling for halyards that I haven't seen for a while. It used to be haul-yards .... obviously the rope for hauling the yard.

I always thought it was halliards as per Hervey Bentham et al. , and 'halyards' were an easy spell rya-ism for poorly read Solent 'dudes'. You learn something every day.

'Dudes'={dressed in permanent sunnies, and this seasons, matching, hi speed/gwip deck shoe-lets and HPX in the bar, instead of Club tie, Weefer jkt, Viyella shirt (collar done up!),'pink' Capt Cuwwies, wrecked but cleaned up DuBawwy's and your well used kepi Bretonnique under one arm.}

 

[Humblebee]

[QUOTE
I've called a pushpit a pushpit for the last 35 years[/QUOTE]

And do you call a spade a spade or a f***ing shovel?

 

[alan_d]

Now there's a spelling for halyards that I haven't seen for a while. It used to be haul-yards .... obviously the rope for hauling the yard.

The Oxford English Dictionary disputes that derivation. It would seem that the word started off much the same as the modern haulier, i.e. something or somebody that moves something, but became in the OED's phrase, "perverted by its association with yard" and acquired the "d".

 

[dk]

So my pushpit/stern pulpit/blunt end safety rail is possibly a taffrail then!

From what i can see from the photo it looks more like a horse to me!

 

[halfway]

How about from the source of the word pulse. As in beat.

Pit is obviously from pytt, as in a well.

Now think of the old ships that carried the religious message to the world. They all had that little bit in the front that the drum was played in. How else where you to keep time rowing. That is why the churches originally had figure heads on the pulpit. Boats occurred before our religions and well before Latin.


("Push" means to move out of the way. Hence the pit that the rudder was operated from at the stern. Ancient Egyptian boats had them. No idea what they were called then obviously. So the question is did we lose the usage of the word when the rudders stopped being oars.)

 

[Tommyrot]

From what i can see from the photo it looks more like a horse to me!

No need to get personal....

It was the only pic where you can see the sheet arrangement, it's fixed, not sliding. Looks less like a horse here....

 

[cliffordpope]

Words that start off as somebody's little joke can turn into perfectly acceptable words in their own right without anyone ever giving a thought to their origins.

The best example is "tandem". This was a Victorian joke refering to a double bicycle for two people, tandem being the Latin for "at length". It has now passed into the language not just in respect of bicycles, but brake master cylinders and processes generally.

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

Bit of thread drift but is there an agreed nautical name for the goalpost structures at the stern, above the taffrail and pushpit!!

 

[Ludd]

Bit of thread drift but is there an agreed nautical name for the goalpost structures at the stern, above the taffrail and pushpit!!

Eyesore?

 

[TradewindSailor]

Bit of thread drift but is there an agreed nautical name for the goalpost structures at the stern, above the taffrail and pushpit!!

In this neck of the woods they're called Targa Bars ...... probably from the name for the convertable car roll bar.

 

[snowleopard]

Bit of thread drift but is there an agreed nautical name for the goalpost structures at the stern, above the taffrail and pushpit!!

No. I tend to call mine a 'gantry'. 'Goalposts' is common.

Another one that has various names is the outer hulls of a trimaran. The options I've come across are 'ama', 'float', 'outrigger', 'hull' and 'pontoon'.

 

[TradewindSailor]

No. I tend to call mine a 'gantry'. 'Goalposts' is common.

Another one that has various names is the outer hulls of a trimaran. The options I've come across are 'ama', 'float', 'outrigger', 'hull' and 'pontoon'.

I can add one ..... 'sponson'.

'Ama' is Polynesian and they have some interesting names for the trimaran parts : 'vaka' - central hull; 'aka' - the ama to vaka support beams.

 

[Woodlouse]

Bit of thread drift but is there an agreed nautical name for the goalpost structures at the stern, above the taffrail and pushpit!!

I always thought they were carrying handles?