Getting Started in Boats > Dictionary
Getting Started In Boats Dictionary
- Bow:
- The front of the boat... which is never, ever, called “the front of the boat.”
- Counterbore:
- A shallow hole that allows a wood screw's head to sit below the wood’s surface. After the screw is set, the hole can be filled with putty or with a wooden plug.
- Guardrail:
- A strip of wood placed on the side of a hull to provide protection when the boat comes alongside another boat or a dock.
- Keel:
- A boat’s backbone timber.
- Kiln dried:
- Wood whose moisture content has been reduced by drying in a specialized oven.
- Mold:
- A form that describes the sectional shape of a boat at a given location, or “station” along the boat’s length. Most boats require at least three molds; the lumberyard skiff, simple and elegant boat that it is, uses only one.
- Oarlock pad:
- A wooden block upon which is mounted an oarlock socket (and into which is inserted an oarlock).
- Painter:
- A small boat's bow line (not “rope”). A painter is usually spliced permanently to the boat, so is not removed when the boat is in use.
- Riser:
- A seat support.
- Sheerline:
- The top line of a boat’s hull, when viewed in profile. The sheerline is important to a boat’s overall look; unfairness here can ruin the appearance.
- Spreader:
- For our purposes, a spreader is simply a piece of wood used to force the sides of the boat apart slightly before the bottom is planked. (In sailing, a spreader is a short strut used to hold the rigging away from a boat’s mast.)
- Stem:
- The upright structural member that joins the forward ends of the boat’s planking together. Small boats like the lumberyard skiff often employ a two-piece stem—an inner one and an outer one. The inner one does the structural work; the outer protects and finishes the ends of the planking.
- Stern:
- The back of the boat... which is never, ever, called “the back of the boat.”
- Thwart:
- A seat that runs from side to side in a small boat. Any object placed in this side-to-side orientation is said to lie a “athwartship.”
- Transom:
- The panel that encloses the stern of a boat, keeping the water out. (Some boats—canoes, for example—do not have transoms.)
- Thole pin:
- A wooden peg inserted into a boat’s rail in lieu of an oarlock, to provide a bearing point for an oar.