5 boating phrases in layman’s terms
A ship’s leadership tries to recount the trick to remembering port and starboard.
The boating world can be a tough nut to crack, especially for newcomers trying to understand a unique and unintuitive glossary. You’ve probably heard of ‘port’ and ‘starboard’, but in today’s take, we highlight five additional boating important boating terms to help you impress at your next summer soiree.
FYI: Port is a reference to the boat’s left side, while starboard is the boat’s right side. The trick to remembering? PORT and LEFT have the same amount of letters.
“BILGE”
Bilges are your ship’s lowest point, and therefore, where any rogue fluids collect. Your captain may sometimes say water has found its way “in the bilge”. This is usually harmless. In more trying times, filth, oil and fuel can find their way into the bilge. “The Bilge” or “bilges” are not items installed into the boat, rather, the term references the lower area of the hull where rogue fluids accumulate. Bilges are designed to collect and direct water from all areas of the boat into a handfull of locations, where bilge pumps lay at the ready to extract the water overboard via plumbing connected to thru hulls.
Bilge pumps can be manual, although most are automatically triggered by a float switch, which fires once fluid levels rise above the float line. If water continues to rise, a high water alarm from the bilge will activate, notifying crew of a water level dangerous to the vessel. High water alarms may trigger additional bilge pumps to assist with water levels that could damage the mechanical and/or electrical components of the engine room.
A simple bilge sketch shows loose fluids (mainly water), being pumped overboard by the combination of a float switch, bilge pump and thru hull.
2. “TRANSOM”
The ‘transom’ generally references the back of the boat. You may hear someone say “we board at the transom”, meaning you’ll board through the back of the boat verses the front or side. More technically, the transom can reference the workable space on the back of a boat, housing important components like engines, underwater lights and zincs. The image below highlights the technical space where these components are installed. If you’re dealing with an outboard boat, the engines will be mounted “on/at the transom”.
When servicing your boat, you may hear a reference to “transom zincs”. Since zincs are placed in multiple areas on the boat, the transom zincs (white ovals in the image) are those bolted directly to the rear wall.
3. “GRP”
Glass Reinforced Plastic, otherwise known as fiberglass or composite. Since the terms are used interchangeably, it can get quite confusing.
When any of these terms are mentioned, the discussion is about the build material of your boat. Since material is fairly important (sarcasm) this one was important to clarify. For those seeking a fiberglass boat, you can inquire on any options citing the aforementioned terms as their build material. For a deeper dive into the differences in materials, read our blog comparing the pros and cons of Fiberglass vs. Aluminum within the context of VanDutch and Vanquish.
The raw hull of a VanDutch 55, laid in fiberglass inside a mold.
The mold of a VanDutch 55 during the curing process.
4. “BEAM”
Length, beam, draft. The three amigos. These terms make up the standard measurements of every boat.
We focus on beam since its concept is easily translated as something you’re already used to: width. Importantly though, beam is the boat’s widest width. This measurement comes in handy when you’re on the hunt for your slip, transporting via road or trying to maximize the horizontal deck space of your next toy.
Safety First: Round up when using Beam to gauge your slip size.
5. “NAUTICAL MILES”
Its normal to wonder ‘Why are there separate measurements for miles AND nautical miles’? Here’s a beginner’s view:
All maritime navigation is based on longitude and latitude for pinpoint intercontinental accuracy. This system is used globally, and due to long range travel, must incorporate the Earth’s curvature into the measurement. Nautical miles are slightly longer than conventional miles, at a rate of 1 mile to 1.15078 nautical mile.
Nice work. You’ve finished your quick education in boating jargon and should last at your next yacht party. Drop us an email for any other yachting terms to explain.
Assist@RNMarine.com
Captain Todd doesn’t like when you incorrectly reference the transom. Now you can chat him up; maybe even impress.
