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

[SeaStarDream]

I want to call it an 'aft deck', but then what do I call the deck above the aft cabin?

 

[Bradenvlp]

Cockpit

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Ah. Nautical terminology. I would call that area the aft weather deck. The aft-most section I would call the cockpit.


Before anyone asks: Saloon: A room in the cabin on a boat that’s usually the primary entertaining area. “We served cocktails in the main saloon; it was a great area for entertaining our guests.” (https://en.mimi.hu/boating/saloon.html)

 

[OldDan1943]

When you step out the aft door, you step into the cockpit.
The other is the upper deck.

 

[O C Diver]

If the aft deck is shaded by the roof to near the transom, that's the "Veranda" where we gather for morning coffee and the "Sundowner" beverage. Meals can also be served there. The deck above is the "Boat Deck", although "Dinghy Deck " might be more appropriate.

Well that's what they're referred to on my boat.

Ted

 

[CaptTom]

I've seen that called a "sun deck." We call ours the "moon deck" because we never sit out there in the sun. It looks like you've got a hard top over it, so those are probably not going to work for you. "Weather deck" is good, but again with that hardtop...

Maybe "mid deck" is your best bet. You have a fore deck, bridge deck, mid deck and cockpit.

Then again, it's your boat. Call it whatever works for you! Best to make it sound nautical. Calling it a "patio" will mark you as a lubber.

 

[Shrew]

If it we had the boat in your avatar, we'd end up referring to the exterior spaces on that boat as:

Bow

Bridge

Upper Deck/Back Deck: Space above the aft cabin

Cockpit: water level space aft of the aft cabin.

 

[OldDan1943]

Bow is the pointy end.

 

[koliver]

what do I call the deck above the aft cabin?

Correct

Also on some boats, where a small boat is stowed, the boat deck.

 

[SeaStarDream]

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. SS. Re: Post #10. Cockpit. (IMHO).

 

[Comodave]

Yes, the area directly forward of the swim platform is the cockpit.

 

[JWellington]

I hear salesmen saying 'beach club', for the part that used to have other names.

 

[HeadMistress]

A raised deck atop an aft cabin is the correctly called the "poop" deck. That has nothing to do with my specialty...in days of yore, taking on water over the stern was known as being "pooped." To combat that, the captain's quarters on galleons and other warships had today's version of aft cabins that were tall enough to prevent the vessel from being "pooped." The deck above the captain's quarters became known as the "poop deck."

And I'm amazed that I'm the only one among you who seems to know this! However in your defense, the dumbing down of America has most likely resulted in the marine marketers deciding to apply the same reasoning they used to rename a ship's saloon a "salon."

--Peggie

 

[kthoennes]

I may be an ardent traditionalist in almost everything in life, but I think any nautical use of "poop" needs to be retired. Even if a roller did break over my aft railing, I'd feel stupid and adolescent saying I was "pooped." Nautically correct or not.

Anyway, that photo is the cockpit, and we've always called the deck over the aft cabin the aft deck. Clear and logical.

 

[HeadMistress]

Does that mean you'd never refer to printed instructions or info as a "poop sheet" or ever say you're "totally pooped out" to mean you're exhausted?



--Peggie

 

[BruceK]

On the "poop" issue, I seem to remember a faithful replica of the Capt. James Cook barque Endeavour I saw had aft outboard overwater "heads". In heavy weather a kind of bidet facility might self operate.

 

[JWellington]

Does that mean you'd never refer to printed instructions or info as a "poop sheet" or ever say you're "totally pooped out" to mean you're exhausted?



--Peggie

Meanings of words can , and do change over time. No need to fuss over them. Here are some other words that have changed meaning: gay...liberal...progressive....woke, etc.

 

[CaptTom]

I was actually going to suggest "poop deck" but discarded it for a couple of reasons. There's a cockpit aft which would take the first hit if that boat were "pooped." And the boat isn't built with a fo'c'sle or aftcastle. The overhead of the aftcastle would technically be the poop deck, but there isn't one.

In all other matters relating to poop, I defer to Peggy's wisdom.

 

[OldDan1943]

I was actually going to suggest "poop deck" but discarded it for a couple of reasons. There's a cockpit aft which would take the first hit if that boat were "pooped." And the boat isn't built with a fo'c'sle or aftcastle. The overhead of the aftcastle would technically be the poop deck, but there isn't one.

In all other matters relating to poop, I defer to Peggy's wisdom.

Poop deck is archaic as 'larboard'

 

[kthoennes]

I figure if a nautical term makes my 11 year old son snicker, then I'll leave that word to Herman Melville and otherwise retire it. I may be an English major and I still use a King James Bible, but I -- even I -- am starting to acknowledge the fluid nature of language. It was actually a nautical verse, Acts 28:13, that started me thinking some years ago that I need to have a modern translation on hand.

And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli...​

If somebody like me, with grad degree, and an emphasis on early English Lit, and born with the smell of Long Island Sound through the hospital windows, and reading more Melville than most, and climbing all over the Charles W. Morgan with my brother when we were kids, and staying in the Captain Cook Hotel lots of nights -- and visiting his plaque in Westminster Abbey -- and the ability to recite Chaucer's first lines in Middle English and the first line of Beowulf in Old English -- with all that, English and nautical, if I'm still not at all clear what "fetch a compass" meant in 1611 without looking at a footnote, fine, once in a while I'll have to surrender my affinity for artful anachronisms and move on.

 

[psneeld]

Wow...no wonder my English stinks...I just studied boats my whole life...

 

[kthoennes]

Wow...no wonder my English stinks...I just studied boats my whole life...

Much more useful. (Although there was that one rainy night as a tourist in a pub in Oxford when I started to recite Blake's Jerusalem and the whole place stood up and sang the whole thing and old guys started to cry. I didn't mean to touch that off but apparently they felt obliged. That was a pretty cool moment. But now I need to take a MIG or TIG welding class so I can fix my broken aluminum-pipe bow rail.)

 

[JWellington]

I once had an admiral who had a good point of view on this topic of nautical terms. She would say things like, " Ill say left, instead of port, if I want to. Or, "Im going downstair to bed and dont care where you go".

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. JW. Hmmm...Left instead of port? Whose left? Yours or mine and it depends on which way you're facing. Took ME the longest time to use the port/starboard terms BUT it does make sense.

 

[JWellington]

Sailors never had trouble distinguishing which side is ...port. Ive never heard any say it depends which way youre facing. Although I admit some of our admirals would.

 

[kthoennes]

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...

 

[Zoar]

Wow, never tonight poop deck would be retired. Certainly not yet.

Who decides these things, anyhow?

 

[psneeld]

Wow, never tonight poop deck would be retired. Certainly not yet.

Who decides these things, anyhow?

Thankfully not TF.

 

[Hippocampus]

Heads were classically off the bowsprit on large sailing vessels. Self draining and even in the absence of rain self cleaning. They were at the head of the vessel.
I’ve been pooped more than once. In fact once with resulting broken ribs from slamming into the wheel. Being pooped is a fine and appropriate term imho. Can scare the poop out of you surfing, getting pooped and waiting to see if the boat rises.
Commonly hear “boat deck” used for the deck above the saloon on trawlers around here. A bit of a misnomer as some trawlers don’t carry their dinghy up there.
In “archaic” double ended” boats starboard was the side where the steering oar was placed. Port the side next to the wharf or pier when tied up in port. Agree even now makes more sense than larboard. Easier to distinguish starboard from port when yelling to be heard over wind or engine noise.