Being safe around ropes

[Karanga]

Mmm....
Strikes me a little like the "experienced and knowledgeable" diving community. Don't dare call your mask a set of goggles, or your fins a pair of flippers!!
A similar degree of snobbishness perhaps, in insisting on particular nautical terms, despite everyone knowing exactly what is being referred to?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Hoosierdoc

And what’s a rope?

In maritime language, rope is cordage between small stuff and cable in size. A rope is some piece of cordage of that size, which is not in use, or whose use is not being designated in that conversation (other than a bell rope, foot rope, or bolt rope).



So a piece of rope which is attached to the clew of your jib and has been reeved and is ready to use in sailing, is "a sheet". But once you remove it and coil it and put it in a locker, it is "a rope". There is no such thing as "line". There is only "a line" or "that line", which designates particular uses of rope or cable.



A great way to prove lack of maritime knowledge, is to misuse the word "line" as a landlubber's pseudo-maritime synonym for "rope".






[/pedant mode]. Sorry, pet peeve of mine.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

A great way to prove lack of maritime knowledge, is to misuse the word "line" as a landlubber's pseudo-maritime synonym for "rope".


[/pedant mode]. Sorry, pet peeve of mine.

All it proves is that you were taught differently.
I am anything but a landlubber yet I was taught to call an unused piece of rope.. "A line"
By a bloody Englishman no less. [emoji33]

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

All it proves is that you were taught differently.
I am anything but a landlubber yet I was taught to call an unused piece of rope.. "A line"
By a bloody Englishman no less. [emoji33]

OK, sorry I'm being a bloody pedant, and possibly exaggerating a little for effect. Certainly no disrespect intended




Pedantry aside, I am aware that there are a lot of people, and not only landlubbers , who use the words this way. I simply don't like this usage, because it is jargon -- it's a word used differently from how others use it, for no purpose, whereas the traditional ("English") usage which I've described, uses specialized words only for specialized concepts. I've seen a lot of people who've been on a boat a total of three times, bullying people who've never been on a boat once, with the "rope becomes line as soon as it is brought on board" thing, and so I just doubly don't like it. But that's to a large degree just a question of taste, so carry on

[Uricanejack]

Tomato or tomato? Or is it Tommatoe?

Knowing unfortunate folks who have damaged hands Line handeling. The OP’s original topic about safety tips was I thought a good one.

Never wrap a line or a rope around your hand to pull.
Never stand with your foot in a bight.
Keep where your your feet are clear.
Always keep your hands well clear of a winch.
Lean right over the winch, when you put a turn on.

Are just a few.

[boatman61]

So.. back to being safe around ropes..
One of the biggest failings I see on boats is the messy way people treat them..
Haul in sheets when tacking for example.. are they coiled and left ready and out of the way for the next usage.??
No they lay there in a bunch of fives waiting to cause a jam,, or bights in the cockpit ready to wrap a foot as a sheet is set fly.
Tidy after each use children..

[SV_Harbinger]

A few other tips, never trust a rope/line (pick your term) that is under tension, if you have to veer out a line that is under load leave a turn around a cleat so the cleat not you take the loading and you are not in line with it, never try to grab a line that is moving (if you like having skin on your palms anyway)

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by StuM

When collecting for a fire, I pick up wood

Stu, like politics, being right doesn't count for much. All that matters is that you say it often and loudly.


For what it's worth, my boat has...

• berths and also beds.
• a head but also a bath room.
• it turns both right and starboard.
• a sole but also a floor.
• the wrench you are looking for can be either aft or behind you.

And lots of ropes. Oddly, each has either a specific name ("trim the barberhauler 2 inches outboard") or it is rope ("grab the red rope in the locker and lash the widget down"). After all, there is a "red line" on the boom and on the genoa track, marking positions. I wouldn't want to confuse someone with jargon, would I? I might ask you to take a dockline ashore or to coil up some rope. I'm guessing you would know what I meant.


And if the thread had been titled "Being Safe Around Lines" we would have rightfully assumed it was about either traffic safety or coloring books. The use of "proper" nomenclature would have been less clear, and is not the purpose of communication to be clear? When jargon does not improve clarity, it is poor usage.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Stu, like politics, being right doesn't count for much. All that matters is that you say it often and loudly.


For what it's worth, my boat has...

• berths and also beds.
• a head but also a bath room.
• it turns both right and starboard.
• a sole but also a floor.
• the wrench you are looking for can be either aft or behind you.

And lots of ropes. Oddly, each has either a specific name ("trim the barberhauler 2 inches outboard") or it is rope ("grab the red rope in the locker and lash the widget down"). After all, there is a "red line" on the boom and on the genoa track, marking positions. I wouldn't want to confuse someone with jargon, would I? I might ask you to take a dockline ashore or to coil up some rope. I'm guessing you would know what I meant.


And if the thread had been titled "Being Safe Around Lines" we would have rightfully assumed it was about either traffic safety or coloring books. The use of "proper" nomenclature would have been less clear.

I like your style!




For whatever it may be worth, since we're talking about terminology, "head" is also an abused nautical term in my opinion.


It certainly does not mean the fixture, the actual porcelain god, which is a toilet. It means the compartment, and it's "heads" not "head".



And if there are bathing facilities in it, I think it's perfectly reasonable to call it a "bathroom". The idea of the "heads" is that this is the space where sailors relieve themselves, formerly at the head of the ship (square riggers sailing mostly downwind).

[Pete7]

Equally 'lines' were something I did at school, normally repetitively in multiples of 100.

Pete

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The idea of the "heads" is that this is the space where sailors relieve themselves, formerly at the head of the ship (square riggers sailing mostly downwind).

Dont you find it a bit strange that colloquialisms, which are meant to be informal terms for things familiar, somehow take on this sanctimonious religion, when you add a bit of seawater?

I always thought that colloquialisms evolved as each generation evolves.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Dont you find it a bit strange that colloquialisms, which are meant to be informal terms for things familiar, somehow take on this sanctimonious religion, when you add a bit of seawater?

I always thought that colloquialisms evolved as each generation evolves.

Yes!


But do distinguish between colloquialisms and technical terminology. A lot of the specialized language of any field, including seafaring, does have important meaning which cannot be conveyed accurately with generic commonly used terms.


The problem is that some people want to show off, by knowing a little of the lingo, and then that turns it into something other than effective communication.

[CaptainGrey]

Originally Posted by Hoosierdoc

And what’s a rope?

Rope is material from which one makes lines. Unless you're speaking of a footrope, bolt rope, manrope, or bell rope.

[Stu Jackson]

I used to care about the differences. Then a few years ago I read Dockhead's and thinwater's discussions.


Free, free, free at last...


It sure is liberating.

[bongo]

On modern merchant vessels I've been told that the only "rope", (that laypersons would identify as rope), are the man-ropes hanging from the davit span wire on the lifeboat gravity davits. On the other hand, the "cables" that the vessel is moored with are actually called "wire-rope". Interesting that it might be called rope until it has been dedicated to a specific purpose. (I'll have to talk to some bosuns about that, I'm from the engine room)