Newbie question: What is this part of the boat called?

[Bob Cofer]

The sailor in me thinks of that as the fantail. The boater in me thinks of that as the cockpit.

 

[kthoennes]

I thought "fantail" was only used for a stern deck that extended aft beyond the rudder, like the really beautiful sterns on classic liners like the Titanic, or the fake curved stern on the Queen Mary 2 just tacked on for aesthetic reasons (but close enough for me), or the swallow tails on classic profile sailboats like this Sparkman & Stephens for example.

 

[Maerin]

Port and starboard click very easily with me and make perfect sense, but I'll admit my brain cells misfire once in a while on which is red and green. I think my brain gets confused with "Red Right Return" (in the US anyway) but port/left is a red nav light. I always have to mumble, port is a red wine, port and left have the same number of letters...

Our Power Squadron days memed "do you have any red port wine left?"
It stuck.

 

[OldDan1943]

Years ago, it was the habit of ore carries to have two plaque in the wheel house indicating port and starboard. In my wheel house, I have maintained that tradition.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. JW. Exactly my point. Non boaters might refer to left and right and that is determined by which direction you're facing.

 

[Bob Cofer]

From my copy of the Bluejacket’s Manual

 

[JWellington]

Greetings,
Mr. JW. Exactly my point. Non boaters might refer to left and right and that is determined by which direction you're facing.

Which probably has never happened in the history of the world. Its like being beside a river and asking if we're on the left bank or right bank. How many will say it depends which way youre facing? Maybe a 10 year old kid.

 

[OldDan1943]

Reminds me of the cruise I went on. Those long hallways in the stateroom area. They could have benefited by at least some signs with arrows and a caption, "Pointy end"

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. JW. "Maybe a 10 year old kid." I'm gonna tell my mom on you!

 

[guy with a boat]

Which probably has never happened in the history of the world. Its like being beside a river and asking if we're on the left bank or right bank. How many will say it depends which way youre facing? Maybe a 10 year old kid.

Ask your new crew/guest to go down the forward stairs of your newly converted fish/tug boat, go back through the ER and get the tool you want thats in the box on the left. Which side is it on?

 

[Bob Cofer]

The bow is always the reference point on boats or ships so port and starboard are always relevant to that point.

 

[rgano]

If your boat had a flush deck instead of the cockpit you do have the "aft deck" (really a generic sort of name) would be called the fantail. Some would call it the stern deck or even just the stern, the former a generic and the latter just wrong. A flush deck with a cabin like the photo, the place where the dinghy sits could be called the more generic cabin top or the boat deck. As Peggy says, if that cabin were all the way aft, poop deck is probably proper, but no powerboater I even met would call it so. Motor yacht style pleasure trawlers with the full height and width aft cabin call the deck a number of different things. When I had Navy friends aboard my flush-deck trawler, we all knew what we were talking about when we used fo'c'sl, fantail, maindeck, 01-level (cabin top), and 02 level (flying bridge). Civilians never confused boat deck and flying bridge and aft deck. ho hum

 

[psneeld]

Which probably has never happened in the history of the world. Its like being beside a river and asking if we're on the left bank or right bank. How many will say it depends which way youre facing? Maybe a 10 year old kid.

There is a right and left bank to navigators.

"One of the biggest confusions for a yachtsman venturing inland on continental waterways is the use of the terms Left Bank and Right Bank. The thing that must be kept in mind is that Left Bank and Right Bank are fixed reference points named from the perspective of looking from the source of a river towards its mouth or where it runs into another river. This means that when travelling downstream you will have the Left Bank to Port, and travelling upstream it will be to Starboard; it’s as simple as that."


https://www.bargehandling.com/Barge...ntries/2016/11/15_Left_Bank_-_Right_Bank.html

 

[JWellington]

Ask your new crew/guest to go down the forward stairs of your newly converted fish/tug boat, go back through the ER and get the tool you want thats in the box on the left. Which side is it on?

Thats probably another thing thats never happened in the world. In the riverbank analogy, would you know which bank your on? My bet is....yes,, just as most on a boat would.

 

[rgano]

One thing the Western River terminology helps a bit to clear up things are terms like "left descending bank.'

 

[JWellington]

One thing the Western River terminology helps a bit to clear up things are terms like "left descending bank.'

All you need to say is....left bank, the convention is to face downriver, same as to face forward on a boat.

 

[rgano]

All you need to say is....left bank, the convention is to face downriver, same as to face forward on a boat.

I know that. I was just telling the public at large that the official terminology there uses LDB and RDB.

 

[OldDan1943]

and that's another reason for me not doing the western river.

 

[Art]

It Is a Sun Deck! Like ours with the lower of two canvas bimini over it...

We like to call it our "Party Deck". Lots o' fun up there!!

 

[rslifkin]

On my boat (trunk cabin layout) the area on top of the aft cabin is the bridge, as that's where the helm is (no flybridge on top of the salon on my boat, the salon top area is just empty cabintop). I generally refer to the small deck behind the trunk cabin as the "aft deck" (it's not recessed like a cockpit).

 

[rgano]

Just to show you how manufacturers get into the deck naming bidness, the area under my hardtop where the helm is ostentatiously named the Bridge Deck. It is actually the motor cover which is hinged at the forward end. At the aft end of the motor box where you step down about 6-8 inches onto the after deck they call the Cockpit. Pilothouse comes to my mind faster than bridge deck, but what the hey!

 

[rslifkin]

Just to show you how manufacturers get into the deck naming bidness, the area under my hardtop where the helm is ostentatiously named the Bridge Deck. It is actually the motor cover which is hinged at the forward end. At the aft end of the motor box where you step down about 6-8 inches onto the after deck they call the Cockpit. Pilothouse comes to my mind faster than bridge deck, but what the hey!

In my mind, a pilothouse would be fully enclosed. A helm that's open to the outside would be a bridge (flying or otherwise). But if it's not a distinct area (such as a lower helm in a salon), then I'd probably just call it "the helm".

 

[JWellington]

There is a right and left bank to navigators.

"One of the biggest confusions for a yachtsman venturing inland on continental waterways is the use of the terms Left Bank and Right Bank. The thing that must be kept in mind is that Left Bank and Right Bank are fixed reference points named from the perspective of looking from the source of a river towards its mouth or where it runs into another river. This means that when travelling downstream you will have the Left Bank to Port, and travelling upstream it will be to Starboard; it’s as simple as that."


https://www.bargehandling.com/Barge...ntries/2016/11/15_Left_Bank_-_Right_Bank.html

A pretty lame yachtsman that wouldnt know that.

 

[rgano]

In my mind, a pilothouse would be fully enclosed. A helm that's open to the outside would be a bridge (flying or otherwise). But if it's not a distinct area (such as a lower helm in a salon), then I'd probably just call it "the helm".

So when I drop the back isinglass from its rolled up position, I have a pilothouse on my Pilot 30 and a helm, what, area? I'm so confused. But the question was deck names, not compartment names. I don't use any such terms on my smallish Pilot with others aboard except "back there" (cockpit) and "down there" (the downeast cabin area) because I am always in the middle at the helm.

 

[psneeld]

A pretty lame yachtsman that wouldnt know that.

Many boaters don't as they don't boat on rivers where the use is prevalent.

 

[JWellington]

Many boaters don't as they don't boat on rivers where the use is prevalent.

I guess I assumed that most people who wernt boaters at all knew. Reminds me once in some port at a riverside bar. Our filipina GFs called to join us. And told us where they were. I told them we were in the bar just hardly 200 yards downstream , on the left bank. They called back about an hour later and said they couldnt find us!!!!!! Ok, asian girls, but surely most westerners would have known.

 

[BruceK]

All you need to say is....left bank, the convention is to face downriver, same as to face forward on a boat.

Vital to get this right when visiting Paris. Philippines not so much.

 

[kthoennes]

I grew up sailing on the Connecticut River and now we keep our boat on the Missouri River and I wasn't aware of the left/right bank thing. Guess I'm one of those "lame" boaters.

 

[JWellington]

Vital to get this right when visiting Paris. Philippines not so much.

Rather.......the norm....everywhere.

 

[JWellington]

I grew up sailing on the Connecticut River and now we keep our boat on the Missouri River and I wasn't aware of the left/right bank thing. Guess I'm one of those "lame" boaters.

No shame if you didnt know. But means you wouldnt have been able to tell the girls where to find you.

"The term upriver (or upstream) refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i.e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term downriver (or downstream) describes the direction towards the mouth of the river, in which the current flows. The term left bank refers to the left bank in the direction of flow, right bank to the right.".