Units

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

The typical log line had knots every 47' 3". With the 28 second glass, the number of knots pulled off by the log was the speed in knots. Using the 14 second glass, you doubled the number.

The spacing is based on 3600 seconds, divided by 28 seconds. That ratio equals the ratio between 6060 feet (a nautical mile), divided by 47' 3". Fascinating stuff, eh?

The sounding line, of course, is measured, as mentioned above, in fathoms, equal to 6'.

I didn't actually know that stuff...I googled it. I'm no ancient mariner.

 

[achris]

Re: Units

I would like to point out that real sailors (navy and merchant navy) uses KNOTS and NAUTICAL MILES... And for those who say their GPS is in MPH... You can change that with a simple use of the instruction manual.

Chris...........

 

[JB]

Re: Units

Lissen, dudes. I will rejoice if we can just get people to call a deck a deck or a sole a sole instead of a bleedin' floor.

Oh, and port and starboard too, if you are gonna change stuff.

How about lines instead of rope?:redface:

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

How about lines instead of rope?:redface:

A line does work.
A rope does not.

 

[achris]

Re: Units

Only one 'rope' on a boat... Anyone know where it is?

Not you JB.. We all know you know....

Chris........

P.S. I'm not trying to change things, just get people to use the right terminology...

 

[CN Spots]

Re: Units

The starting rope on my outboard?

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

Since I don't have a bell on my boat...

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

Well, since most of the boaters I encounter don't know any nautical terms at all, I guess I don't expect it. Insisting on marine terminology isn't going to do a lot of good.

Even port and starboard are almost universally unknown among today's freshwater boaters. It's bad enough that the typical boating safety educational stuff gets completely misunderstood. Stuff like "passing port to port" is meaningless to most of today's boaters, so I believe it should be abandoned completely. Instead, learning that you should keep right when encountering a boat coming in the opposite direction is actually possible for folks to remember. That's what they do on the road, already.

Complicating the rules by requiring a new vocabulary simply doesn't work, so the simple rules just get ignored. I don't even expect other boaters to know how to operate safely, so I do my best to avoid them as much as possible and give them adequate leeway to let them do whatever they will do.

It's easy to scorn folks who don't know the rules, but the rules need to be simplified for folks who won't take the time to learn an entirely new vocabulary. They won't do it, so we should simplify it. Once we do that, then we can start expecting people to follow the rules...or at least follow them about as well as they do on the road.

Vent mode off.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

Since I don't have a bell on my boat...

Well, that's easily corrected:

http://www.iboats.com/Ship_s_Bells/...21402901--**********.285716013--view_id.39747

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

I'll mount it next to my Suez light.

 

[Mike Robinson]

Re: Units

Just to set the record straight, the internationally agreed to length of a nautical mile is 6 076.115 feet or 1 852 meters.

(because the earth is not a perfect sphere the distance of a minute of latitude at the earth's surface varies a bit)

I wouldn't consider knots as a measure of speed to be "archaic" as it is used every day in the marine and aviation industries.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

I'll mount it next to my Suez light.

I had to look that one up, too. Don't forget the electrician you have to have on board, either. If you need him, you can just ring your bell.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

I had to look it up too.
I'll be.
Although it looks like it has been changed at least three times in the last century.
Thanks for the clarification Mike, but 6000 was much easier to remember!

 

[Uraijit]

Re: Units

I have noticed that everybody posting speeds uses miles per hour... Surely we should be using knots in such a marine environment... Knots is the only speed measurement that actually has proper meaning.

Knot=nautical mile per hour. 1 nautical mile is one minute of latitude... So one knot is the passage of one minute of latitude in one hour.
Kilometre.. Napoleon decree that the distance from Paris to the equator be 1000 kilometres... (He got that wrong too).
Mile... what is a mile? 1760 yards, 5280 feet... Just a number... It relates to nothing in the real world....

So, how about we encourage people to use the correct nautical terms?

Any takers?

Chris.........

Using normal units of measurement is something everybody can relate to. Knots is all well and good, but nobody can relate to it. Miles (or Km) in the rest of the word, are something we tend to understand from a very young age. Knots means NOTHING to me, and has no reason to. Most pleasure craft Speedometers don't measure in Knots, so what use is it to ANYBODY? Even most GPS systems give you a choice of either MPH, or KMH. So why go to the extra trouble of converting it to knots, when you already have a perfectly usable figure?

You can take MPH, and convert it to knots, then post it here, then anybody who actually cares enough to do the conversion, can convert it back to MPH, so they have a point of reference. Or we can all just use a simple point of reference.

Most of us aren't looking to cross minuets of latitude either. On my lake, I tend to travel in very large circles, so using knots would just be downright silly...

For those of you who are so overwhelmingly nautical that you can't understand any units besides knots, here's a handy calculator for ya--it even does Miles, AND Kilometers (for those of you across the pond).

http://www.marinewaypoints.com/learn/speedcalc.shtml

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

Funny, one of my neighbors is Navy, he's asks me all the time to translate mph into knots. Sometimes I think he does it just to pull my leg. Oddly though, he doesn't speak nautically even on the water. I yank his chain accusing of impersonating navy personnel.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

Most of us aren't looking to cross minuets of latitude either.

I'll dance to that.

I just couldn't resist...

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Units

MPH is close enough for what I need. As long as my GPS gives me the speed and time of arrival where I am going then all is well.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Units

I'll dance to that.

I just couldn't resist...

LOL

Personally, I'm indifferent to the nomenclature as I can translate.
Most people on the water don't use the proper nomenclature.
Myself, I grew up on boats. I can't remember the last time I called a toilet anything else but a head (this has caused confusion when hosting out of state vendors!). I refer to floors as decks and walls as bulkheads. I'm not he king of my castle, I'm at the helm of the ship. Barnacle butt is a term of endearment in my house.

 

[Lurker Lou]

Re: Units

.... Instead, learning that you should keep right when encountering a boat coming in the opposite direction is actually possible for folks to remember. That's what they do on the road, already.

...or at least follow them about as well as they do on the road.

...

Wooo hoooo hoooo, I can feel the swell coming from down under already.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Units

Wooo hoooo hoooo, I can feel the swell coming from down under already.

Ah, heck...they do everything bassackwards anyhow, mate. Same thing in the UK, old chap.

I don't boat in either place. G'day!