Today's letter – H - will be a
discussion of a very important feature on a boat.
The bathroom.
Which of course, on a sailboat, has an
entirely different name.
The Head.
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| The Figurehead (I borrowed this from what I am hoping is a free site. If this belongs to someone, please let me know. I don't want to infringe.) |
Well, the reason is just as gross as
you can imagine.
It seems, in days of yore, the
'facilities' were placed in the very very very front of the boat, the
beakhead where the figurehead of the boat attached. Holes were cut in
the floor, just above the water line, thus allowing normal wave
action to clean away waste.
Naturally, the name stuck.
Our fixer-upper has a 'head' of sorts.
It is actually a port-a-potty which sits in a tiny alcove which is
also home to numerous ropes and the companionway doors when they are
not in use. It's not unhandy as one of the hooks for the ropes can
also double as a toilet paper holder.
 |
| the port-a-potty of doom |
It was completely UNHANDY in the fact
that the port-a-potty which came with the boat leaked. It took me two
nights, two soaked bathmats, and two pairs of wet socks to figure
this out.
There is nothing worse than a leaking
port-a-potty, not even the bucket with a trashbag which acted as the
head on our Key Largo sailing trip.
Except maybe a rental boat with a
port-a-potty which wasn't cleaned as promised so that everytime the
boat heeled the potty leaked until that one big heel which sent
everything below deck flying thus flooding the floor with
random...liquid...resulting in my favorite pair of tennis shoes being
renamed 'the pee shoes'.
The fixer-upper's port-a-potty is now
residing in a landfill in Southern Missouri.
My NEW non-leaking port-a-potty is most
likely in Walmart's warehouse.
Okay.
Enough of that.
H is also for Heeling.
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| this is a little bit of heel. note the tilt of the boat as well as the awesome splash on the side |
Heeling is awesome.
When a boat 'heels' it leans or tilts
toward the water, due to the wind power. The heel is controlled by
the keel and ballast and the finese of the sails.
On our wooden boat, the keel is known
as a daggerboard.
 |
| note the arrows the top one labels the daggerboard the second one labels the hole in which my fingers get stuck |
It is adjustable so we can move it up and down
depending on the force of the wind and how much we want to heel. This
generally is my job. It is not easy but in order for the daggerboard to
move up and down it must fit through a hole which I always manage to
pinch my fingers in. Oh, and water likes to squirt out of it.
Me, as the ballast, will move from the
low side to the high side of the boat to balance the weight.
Our fixer-upper is a fixed keel which
means we can not raise or lower it. It is made of lead, adding to the
weight or ballast allowing for more stability.
However, the weight of
the people onboard affects the stability so a certain amount of care
still need to be made to keep the boat balanced.
And not hurt anyone's feelings what
with being called 'ballast'.
If a boat heels too much, it can
capsize.
This is not heeling.
This is sinking.
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| just to be fair, this is also not a boat. it is a golf cart. they do not float. |
Come back tomorrow for more
A-Ahoy
B-Bells
C-Catamaran
D-Dramamine
E-Escape
F-Flags
G-Galley
