Pulpit ..... Pushpit!

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TradewindSailor

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It amuses me that yachties call a taffrail a pushpit. Why? Just because it is at the opposite end to the pulpit?

Note the spelling. The bow rail is called a pulpit due to it's similarity to a church pulpit when you are standing in it, looking forward, surely?
 
I blame the RYA. When I did my dazed kipper course many moons ago there was a picture naming the part of a yacht. Including the pushpit.
 
TradewindSailor said:
It amuses me that yachties call a taffrail a pushpit. Why? Just because it is at the opposite end to the pulpit?

Note the spelling. The bow rail is called a pulpit due to it's similarity to a church pulpit when you are standing in it, looking forward, surely?
Click to expand...

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. A Pushpit (and they've been called that since I were a lad, back in the 60s) is an extension of the guard-rails. The former is load-bearing; the latter is not. The two are not synonymous; it would be perfectly possible to have both a taffrail and a pushpit.

Of course the naming is by opposition from the sound of the aptly named pulpit, presumably an attempt at humour by some ancient mariner! I do recall that in the 60s there were some feeble alternatives like "stern pulpit", but "pushpit" is so apposite that the alternatives never got much of a following!
 
Erm, the pulpit and pushpits are metal frameworks at the fore and aft end of the boat respectively.

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.

While pushpit is a play on words of pulpit, it is I feel the correct term for it. I don't think anyone would generally call it a taffrail, for fear of being accused of having allusions of grandeur.


Edit: God I'm slow today. There was but one reply when I started writing that.
 
Last edited:
AntarcticPilot said:
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. A Pushpit (and they've been called that since I were a lad, back in the 60s) is an extension of the guard-rails. The former is load-bearing; the latter is not. The two are not synonymous; it would be perfectly possible to have both a taffrail and a pushpit.
Click to expand...

Well you live and learn....... it seems Little Ship has just gained a Taffrail, cant wait to point it out to the Welsh lot :)

Tom
 
AntarcticPilot said:
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. A Pushpit (and they've been called that since I were a lad, back in the 60s) is an extension of the guard-rails. The former is load-bearing; the latter is not. The two are not synonymous; it would be perfectly possible to have both a taffrail and a pushpit.

Of course the naming is by opposition from the sound of the aptly named pulpit, presumably an attempt at humour by some ancient mariner! I do recall that in the 60s there were some feeble alternatives like "stern pulpit", but "pushpit" is so apposite that the alternatives never got much of a following!
Click to expand...

How about calling it a stern rail? Although pushpit does make me chuckle ..... so it can't be a bad thing eh?
 
TradewindSailor said:
It amuses me that yachties call a taffrail a pushpit. Why? Just because it is at the opposite end to the pulpit?

Note the spelling. The bow rail is called a pulpit due to it's similarity to a church pulpit when you are standing in it, looking forward, surely?
Click to expand...

Pulpit from latin pulpitum/i indicates an elevated platform used by an orator to talk in public. Hence the name of church's pulpit. Indeed there is no corresponding pushpit in latin which must be derived from a colloquial definition of the "taffrail". Going with the english style, it does not matter if it sounds ugly, it works and it is understood.

Even more amusing are the emergency calls: PAN PAN, for the french "panne" that translates into "broken down" and, SECURITAY (or whatever way they spell it in the english version) again refferring to the french securite' (safety). But the most peculiar that puzzled me since I was a child is MAYDAY, referring to the french "m'aidez!" meaning "help me!".

Being neither english nor french, for years I have been wondering what the hell does a May Day have to do with a distress call! Yet I could speak french ... and when I did my VHF training and learnt the other, less popular, calls I got the mistery resolved!
 
haydude said:
Even more amusing are the emergency calls: PAN PAN, for the french "panne" that translates into "broken down" and, SECURITAY (or whatever way they spell it in the english version) again refferring to the french securite' (safety). But the most peculiar that puzzled me since I was a child is MAYDAY, referring to the french "m'aidez!" meaning "help me!".

Being neither english nor french, for years I have been wondering what the hell does a May Day have to do with a distress call! Yet I could speak french ... and when I did my VHF training and learnt the other, less popular, calls I got the mistery resolved!
Click to expand...

The french *******ised lingo associated with VHF calls stems from keeping the french happy when it was decided that English was going to be the predominant language used. So, we can speak english, but when the **** hits the fan we have to speak french words badly at first to be taken seriously.
 
I've always called it a stern pulpit, pushpit always sounds to me like something designed for a tug to push against or some sort of fender.
 
Pushpit sounds daft to me (though I agree it's not a taffrail). Fortunately KS doesn't have one, nor a pulpit, so the issue doesn't arise.

Pete
 
AntarcticPilot said:
...... as a fixing point for halliards, sheets and braces. .....
Click to expand...

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.

But then there's loads more ..... and all those colourful nautical expressions:

'tween the devil and the deep blue see,
to pay the devil,
it's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (I got into serious trouble at school for that one),
to let fly,
the bitter end,
stitch in time,
etc, etc.
 
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