Has My Boat Flipped?

[unclemack]

Always understood "cabin sole" to be a yachtie term.

No evidence that would stand up in court, just remember the guffaws in a fishing port pub when a captain I was crewing for used the term.

Could have been his loud Hooray Henry braying voice though and "kebbin seouwl" was just the last straw.

Almost lost it myself. Would have had to walk home... and he was buying.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

What precisely is a hondekooi aboard ship? Is it the place where the schipperke sleeps? And if so, can you use the words to denote that godforsaken cubbyhole of a berth that's under the cockpit seat in such as Catalina 27s? I used to get queer looks when I told a crew member that she was to sleep in the "afterberth".

Haha, that godforsaken cubbyhole of a berth is, in Dutch, called hondenkooi - litterally translated dog cage BUT, before you ask why: 'kooi' also means 'berth' in 'nautical Dutch*', so in Dutch we refer to it as the berth for the dog. And looking at mine, we're not talking Rottie either.

I use mine for storage, and the cat's litter box is hidden way there. It's just not a berth for anyone over 6 yrs old, and I usually don't allow kids that young on my boat

*: I'm aware nautical Dutch isn't a language, but when we say we're going to our 'kooi', only boat people understand we're going to our berths to sleep. Landlubbers get a strangely worried look on their faces, and are left to wonder why on earth you'd go to your cage, or why you even have one ...

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

I'm curious -but hopefully not too yellow to ask this :-) - What precisely is a hondekooi aboard ship? Is it the place where the schipperke sleeps? And if so, can you use the words to denote that godforsaken cubbyhole of a berth that's under the cockpit seat in such as Catalina 27s? I used to get queer looks when I told a crew member that she was to sleep in the "afterberth"........



TrentePieds

No wonder you got queer looks, asking her to sleep in the "afterberth" while pointing to the "quarterbeth".

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Wotname

"quarterbeth"

That name makes sense, cos it is about a quarter of the size a berth should minimally be

I still think the Dutch are on to something tho, referring to it as the dog's berth ...

[s/v Jedi]

Okay here is the story behind the "hondekooi". This is the place where the person sleeps who has the "hondewacht", i.e. dog watch. This originally was the watch between midnight and 4am which is when others want to sleep... so the hondekooi is positioned so that the occupant can get out and up on deck without waking up everybody.

I was highly surprised that the English wikipedia show this as a broken 2-hour afternoon watch used to shift watches two hours. Only the German WP shows the old meaning because there is no Dutch entry.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Okay here is the story behind the "hondekooi". This is the place where the person sleeps who has the "hondewacht", i.e. dog watch.

Thanks! I was wondering if it had anything to do with the hondewacht.

Still doesn't really explain why the poor soul would have to say in a berth s/he won't fit in -- maybe to make sure they never get comfy enough to fall asleep?

(I'm only 1,75m and I don't fit in mine ... too short and too narrow. Useless for anything but storage and a kitty toilet ...).

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

That name makes sense, cos it is about a quarter of the size a berth should minimally be

I still think the Dutch are on to something tho, referring to it as the dog's berth ...

And it located near the P&S quaters
As for size, I think it depends on the designers, the quarter beths in my previous Laurent Giles Wanderer Class were fairly roomy, maybe 7+ feet long while the Van deStadt 31' Dogger has almost 9 ' quarteberths.

Always awkward to get in and out of course for those of us with advancing years

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

So, 'not much said to confirm my beliefs in the older terminology for sole and ceiling. This makes me think back to about fifty years ago in Annapolis where the wise "old salts" were telling the young me about the cabin sole being overhead and the bilge ceiling being underfoot.

Now you have me wondering if these old guys saw me walking toward the boat shed. Could they have been huddled together, snickering and hatching a plot? "Yeah, we'll make this young kid think he's walking on the ceiling under the sole!" ...'sort of like sending the young apprentice out to find a left-handed wrench. 'or maybe this was just local terms among boat builders in the Chesapeake.

Either way, as I said, I'm the one that needs to adapt.

It's not very often that a joke lasts for 50 years

[TrentePieds]

In Danish as in Dutch and, I believe, in Platdeutsch - the language of the Northwest German sea ports - what we call the "middle watch" (0000-0400 Hours) is called the "dogwatch": Dutch and Platdeutsch = Hondewacht, Danish Norwegian and Swedish = "Hundevagt"

What we call the "first dog" (1600 - 1800 hours) is in Dutsch called "de eerste platvoetwacht" = "the first flat-footed watch", and so it is in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish: "Første platfod"

The names for the rest of the watches follow English usage.

TrentePieds

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

"platvoetwacht"

I think this is from the days of the VOC?

[TrentePieds]

Oh I forgot to mention that in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, as in Dutch, the word for "bunk" is "køje", pronounced almost exactly as Dutch "kooi". The word also serves for "hammock" which is "hængekøje" or "hanging bunk". That doesn't work in Dutch, however, since "kooi" means "cage" or "box". Therefore a hammock, if you can find a place to sling it in Holland, is a "hangmat" a "hanging mat".

A long time ago a fiend went to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to defend his PhD thesis. Thot he couldn't come back to Vancouver without having played the famous golf course at St.Andrews. Hired a caddy and all the clobber. When on the 15th green he noticed a Scot, kilt, tam-o-shanter, sporran'n'all teeing off on #16. Scot got a hole-in-one. Impressive! My friend kept an eye of the Scot. No.17 was a birdie. No. 18 was a grand finish with another hole-in-one.

In the clubhouse my friend sidles up to the Scot and sez: " 'Scuse me, Sir. I don't mean to be inquisitive, but tell me: Why DO you play golf with a walking stick upside down?" Scot sez: "Will, ye see - when we werrre bairn. oor mither tot us te do things the most difficult wae possible - it gives yer backbone. It builds charrrracterrr."

They chat about this for a while. Then the Scot examines his pocket watch and sez: "Ye must ixcuse me. Must git hame to the wife'n'the wee wanes!" Being polite my friend sez: "Oh, you have a family, do you, Sir?"

"Och, aye!", sez the Scot. "I've ten o' the wee blighters. And in answerrr te your nechst quistion, m' guid mon - standing up in a hammoch!"


TrentePieds

[TrentePieds]

"I think this is from the days of the VOC?"

Ye're testing me Lizzy ;-0)!

But yes, it is, but remember the Vereinigte Ostindische Companie did not have the oceans all to itself. There was the DOC (known to us Danes, and maybe even to you, as ""ØK") and there was "John Company" which beat all the others hollow. The seafaring culture and the colonial aspirations of all northern European nations were fairly homogeneous in those days, and seafaring men identified a "sons of the waves" rather than as citizens of any nation or country.

Back then the "Platvoet" was four hours long ("eight bells") like all the others, but in mid-nineteenth century (if memory serves) the platvoet was broken into two two-hour watches to ensure that port and starboard watches would not have to be on duty on the same watch turn after turn. Standing the "middle watch" night after night on a six months voyage to Calcutta was no joke, and the Admiralty (and therefore the Board of Trade) decreed that the "dogwatch" (our platvoet) should be broken into two in order to introduce rotation. That English arrangement was recognized by others as having merit, and to the best of my knowledge all seafaring nations have adopted that arrangement.

But by the time, in the 1920s and '30s, Cap'n Erikson's skippers drove guano haulers like "Pommern" around Cape Stiff crewed by twelve men and six boys in addition to cook and carpenter, the formal watch system had, of necessity, gone by the board. When the ship needed them, those men and boys fell to, regardless of whether it was "their watch" or not!

TrentePieds

[Sailorbob8599]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

...'sort of like sending the young apprentice out to find a left-handed wrench. .

Last fall, my Rigger ... who was breaking in a gullible young helper ... dispatched this young fellow to the marine store to purchase a new crescent wrench ... on his return, he was quickly sent back to the store with a verbal complaint they had provided an SAE wrench and the Rigger needed a metric wrench.
Apparently the Rigger and the store employees were 'in cahoots' on this little game. I felt bad for the young lad, but then I guess many of us have had similar tricks played on us in our early years.

[Idylles15.5]

What's sad is that I watch some of these videos of actual boat brokers and salesman calling the staterooms, bedroom. The Galley, the kitchen, the head the bathroom and what kills me is when say to the customer, " now lets go downstairs" not below. That one always made my Dad crazy. The boating industry itself is dumbing down the consumer. Lord Nelson is spinning in his grave. Nelson S lol

[Idylles15.5]

Oh, and yes, in my picture I'm installing a new 1/4 sawn Teak and Holly CABIN SOLE. lol