What do you call the..

[Supercat568]

I'm sorry for being a idiot. I've searched online boat glossary and other resources and I can't find it. What do you call the frame above the transom? Sometimes it's the back of the top, sometimes it's a stand alone frame that can temporarily hold a dingy but not a davits. Just a regular frame. I'm sharp as a marble.
Thank you

[Sailmonkey]

Radar arch?

Stern arch?

[TrentePieds]

I think what you are talking about may be the rail, very often made of stainless steel tubing, that runs around the stern of the boat, just like there is a similar rail at the front of the boat. The one at the front is called a "pulpit" (the term being taken from the pulpit in a church whence the parson preaches). To distinguish the rail at the stern from the one at the bows, many people call it a "pushpit". Very often the pushpit will be used to support the after edge of what I think you are referring to as "the top", a canvas cover over the cockpit. The pushpit may also be called the "monkey rail".

As Sailmokey sez, some boats have an arch above the stern spanning the deck from side to side. The purpose of such an arch is to carry instrumentation, most often the radar.

To get pedantic about things, "top" is the term used to mean the top of a mast, so the main mast has a main-top, the foremast a fore-top and the mizzen mast a mizzen-top. However, only the mast itself has a "top" (or more correctly; "tops"). Sticks above the mast, such as the top-mast, the top-gallant mast and the royal-mast do not have tops. They have "heads" and to terminate the uppermost stick there will be a sort of knob called a "truck". To see how that all works, google up USCG Eagle

TrentePieds

[Supercat568]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Radar arch?

Stern arch?

I think that's close...may be the term I'm looking for but not sure? But it's close enough for me. Stern arch it is!
Thank you

[chrisr]

on catamarans it's usually called the targa bar or targa arch

guess this comes from the cars with similar structures

cheers,

[Supercat568]

The front one is called a pulpit? Some things are named strange names! Like the upper bridge on a guitar is called a nut.
A yacht couch is called a settee. Why not call it a couch?
The best is football. Some Americans created a new game with a new ball. The world already had a game named football, but they took that name anyhow. What's worse, they gave the original game of football a new name, they called it soccer. Socker? Soccer. So they stole the name and gave it a lame name with a weird spelling.
Pulpit, settee, port, starboard, bow, stern...
Right, left, front and back just weren't good enough? Did they come up with those terms to confuse people? Like pig latin but actual new words instead of modified words? Okay..sorry for the rant! And thank you for the assistance!

[Supercat568]

I watched this documentary, it's absolutely fascinating. Makes me realize how tough men used to be and how soft most of us are now. These men were men, sailing a square rig 16 million pound (8000 ton) cargo ship around cape horn every 90 days. It's the only film of its kind. I'm not sure if I'm committing an offence by putting it here? The narrator was inn his 80s when he narrated but a young man when he shot the film footage.
https://youtu.be/9tuTKhqWZso

[Supercat568]

I was just reading an old sailboat review. The boat has "double lifelines that connect the stainless steel bow and stern pulpits"
You Sir are correct, thank you!
That being said (typed), I did hear someone refer to the stern one as something else and it sounded pretty official. If I come across if it'll reply. Thanks again

[Muaddib1116]

If you're not talking about davits or an arch, the term pushpit is often used.

[Seymore]

Originally Posted by Supercat568

Pulpit, settee, port, starboard, bow, stern...
Right, left, front and back just weren't good enough? Did they come up with those terms to confuse people? Like pig latin but actual new words instead of modified words? Okay..sorry for the rant! And thank you for the assistance!

Starboard comes from Viking longboats, more clearly Steering Board. It was the side with the steering oar, standard on the right side of a boat..

Port was originally Larboard, similarly contracted from Ladder Board. It was the left side, the side you put to the dock, so you didn't smash up the Steering oar on the other side, and then you put a ladder there so the crew could get to the dock.

There was too much confusion in speech between Starboard and Larboard, so in the 1800s(?) the Royal Navy decreed that the left side of a boat, the side on the dock, the Larboard, would thenceforth be called the Port side.

[Big Ed]

The Arch ?

[SV__Grace]

If the boom rests on it, you're looking at a Boom Crutch.

[jen1722terry]

Sometimes a stern rail is called a taffrail

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Big Ed

The Arch ?

Umm, because it actually is an arch (although not quite circular) made out of SS tubing usually.

BTW pulpit is because if you stand up there looking down, you look like a preacher. Pushpit is bit of a terminology joke instead of proper "stern rail".

Most of the terms have their origins in actual usage or appearance, sometimes in an early form of the language.

And we love them because they just simply confuse the hell out of landlubbers. Any sport or activity on earth has it's own vocabulary. Makes life interesting to me!

[Cheechako]

Likely "Davits" if it's holding the dingy.