The port/starboard rule. Why?

[Blueboatman]

Nothing sinister about the reasoning then

 

[Daydream believer]

That sounds plausible. Any fishing historians about?

I hope not ----the arguments could go on for weeks:sleeping::sleeping:

 

[prv]

And btw, galleys should always be on the port side: when you heave to it should best be on the starboard tack with the cook on the low side above his cooker. Always easier to control pots and pans downhill.

Similar reason for the throat halyard on a gaffer to be on the starboard side of the mast (and I guess for the single main halyard of a bermudan sail to be there too). The throat halyard is the one you mostly need to work with when reefing, and if you're hove to in order to reef then you will want to be working from the uphill side.

Pete

 

[FWB]

Similar reason for the throat halyard on a gaffer to be on the starboard side of the mast (and I guess for the single main halyard of a bermudan sail to be there too). The throat halyard is the one you mostly need to work with when reefing, and if you're hove to in order to reef then you will want to be working from the uphill side.

Pete

Well Peak halyard too, you can't really use one without the other. At least I can't

 

[[3889]]

My two-penneth, based on nothing but conjecture; on starboard the steering gear would be partly lifted from the water, giving less control over the vessel than a port-tacker with "rudder" fully submerged.

 

[prv]

Well Peak halyard too, you can't really use one without the other. At least I can't

I could, at least for the first reef. As the gaff went down, the span would slide through the traveller on the peak halyard block which therefore did not demand adjustment. It might have wanted a little tweak to adjust the trim afterwards, but that could wait until everything else was done and the sail was drawing again.

My span wasn't long enough for the same trick to work with the second reef, but a certain Mr Cunliffe reckons it should do on a really well-designed rig. Subsequent reefs will inevitably need the peak easing, it's true, but when putting in the second reef singlehanded I generally found I could drop about the right amount of peak beforehand and then not have to worry about it while handling the throat and the tack pendant and then the clew pendant. So it's still a less significant participant than the others.

Pete

 

[lustyd]

All these crazy stories of oars and such...

Surely you've all noticed the bloody traffic lights nailed to every boat on the sea?! Green light = go, red light = stop and give way. Simples.

 

[prv]

Surely you've all noticed the bloody traffic lights nailed to every boat on the sea?! Green light = go, red light = stop and give way. Simples.

Certainly that's how I remember the crossing-under-power rules, but do they work for port tack / starboard tack? And which came first, the priority or the lights?

Pete

 

[lustyd]

Certainly that's how I remember the crossing-under-power rules, but do they work for port tack / starboard tack? And which came first, the priority or the lights?

Pete

doh! forgot the smiley

 

[chewi]

Port tack gives way to starboard is because the boat on the port tack has the helm higher in the air than the boat on stbd tack hence better visibility for that helm.

Boo2

I seems to me more likley to be because the port tack boat can bear away to pass port to port, whereas the stbd boat would have to head up and compromise his control.

 

[alan_d]

None of these so-called explanations is at all convincing. I suggest we all ignore the rule until somebody comes up with something more plausible and authoritative.

 

[prv]

Bear in mind that until relatively recently, the rule only applied between two boats on the same point of sail. Previously, a boat reaching on starboard tack had to keep clear of one close-hauled on port, while a boat reaching on port tack would stand on to one going downwind on starboard.

Pete

 

[VicS]

Bear in mind that until relatively recently, the rule only applied between two boats on the same point of sail. Previously, a boat reaching on starboard tack had to keep clear of one close-hauled on port, while a boat reaching on port tack would stand on to one going downwind on starboard.

Pete

My BIL belived that.
I had to put him right about it when he was helming my boat ( I was below cooking dinner) on port tack with a fleet of big racing yachts on starboard with spinnakers set too heading our way.

But he also believed that power always gives way to sail. He found out for himself that ferries using a narrow buoyed channel don't when he got sandwiched between the in-bound and out-bound off Harwich

 

[prv]

My BIL belived that.

How old is he?

(It's in my Admiralty Manual of Seamanship 1937 edition.)

Pete

 

[VicS]

How old is he?

(It's in my Admiralty Manual of Seamanship 1937 edition.)

Pete

Long deceased but a good bit older than me. His eldest daughter from his first marriage was about the same age as my sister.

 

[RAI]

I seems to me more likley to be because the port tack boat can bear away to pass port to port, whereas the stbd boat would have to head up and compromise his control.

Sounds the best so far.

 

[Twister_Ken]

It seems to me more likely to be because the port tack boat can bear away to pass port to port, whereas the stbd boat would have to head up and compromise his control.

Surely either a port or starboard tacker could bear away to pass behind t'other equally easily?

 

[RAI]

Surely either a port or starboard tacker could bear away to pass behind t'other equally easily?

Yes but if the starboard tack boat bears away they will pass green to green, so disobeying the port to port rule.

 

[haydude]

Britannia ruled the waves.

It is more like drive on the right and give way to right like in the rest of the civilized world

 

[DownWest]

It is more like drive on the right and give way to right like in the rest of the civilized world

Well... I was in a taxi in Le Touquet that was totaled when a car nipped out of a narrow road on the right. Priorite a droit still ruled then. Thank god (or any other choice of being) it has mostly been binned. Except in a local town, where the insurers do OK.

Interesting discusion. But nobody has given a date for the rule yet?