What word do you use for "driving" a boat ?

[Alan de Enfield]

14 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

I find Port/Starboard a bit confusing and have to think about it from first principles (POSH = port out starboard home, which corresponded to the shaded side of the ship when travelling out to India via the Suez canal). But at least Port and Starboard cannot be confused with left and right from a different perspective, e.g. the left of someone directing you from the front (and looking at you) is your right.....

 

There is no RED PORT LEFT in the bottle.

 

Red light on port side

Port is left hand side  when you are at the helm looking forards

 

 

Boats always came alongside in port on their 'port side'.

The 'steering board' or, 'steering oar' (before wheel steering) was along side the other side of the boat and became "starboard" 

 

Edited August 28 by Alan de Enfield

[NB Thistle]

36 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

I find Port/Starboard a bit confusing and have to think about it from first principles (POSH = port out starboard home, which corresponded to the shaded side of the ship when travelling out to India via the Suez canal). But at least Port and Starboard cannot be confused with left and right from a different perspective, e.g. the left of someone directing you from the front (and looking at you) is your right.....

Port and left both have four letters. The reference on a vessel is always looking forwards.

[GUMPY]

Port and left are shorter words than Starboard and right.

Always looking forward never backwards.

 

 

[Stroudwater1]

If the wind is blowing we don’t so much steer but mess it up, and cuss. Volume of cuss  is inversely proportional to number of Gongoozlers . Indeed if many the cuss turns into a smile of that’s just what I meant to do. 

[LadyG]

PORT is LEFT, that all you need to know ...

[ditchcrawler]

7 hours ago, IanM said:

Just on a slight tangent...

 

In Traction Engine circles the person steering isn't the driver.

Bit like trains

[MrsM]

Another vote for 'steering'

[nicknorman]

Sorry but I think “steering” is a little pretentious. Of course back in the day of horses, all the person on the boat had to do was steer - hence steerer was the appropriate term. But that was 100 years ago and now we have engines, there is more to operating a boat than just steering it. You have to drive it, ie forwards, backwards, different engine speeds, in just the same way as you do in a car. Hence the correct term these days, for anyone not trying to cling on to those rosey horse drawn days of yore, is “Driving”. Unless it’s butty of course.

Edited August 28 by nicknorman

[dogless]

I realise to a glider pilot having an engine may be a shock, but steering is effectively all that's done on a modern boat, and from observation seems the action that causes most issues for new boaters.

 

Moving the lever forward and backwards isn't the most common reported problem (and yes I know a small number use wheels and gears).

 

But we are all at liberty to name it as we please ... I know what you mean by driving and you know what I mean by steering.

 

The fact that I'm right @nicknormanand you're wrong, is neither here nor there  😁

 

Rog

Edited August 28 by dogless

[nicknorman]

19 minutes ago, dogless said:

I realise to a glider pilot having an engine may be a shock, but steering is effectively all that's done on a modern boat, and from observation seems the action that causes most issues for new boaters.

 

Moving the lever forward and backwards isn't the most common reported problem (and yes I know a small number use wheels and gears).

 

But we are all at liberty to name it as we please ... I know what you mean by driving and you know what I mean by steering.

 

The fact that I'm right @nicknormanand you're wrong, is neither here nor there  😁

 

Rog

You are of course perfectly entitled to call it what you please, and be as wrong as you please!

I only mentioned it to bring out that “steering” and “driving” have different meanings, stemming from history. The operator of a coach and horses is said to be “driving”, because they are in charge of the means of propulsion as well as the steering, whereas someone steering a horse drawn boat or butty is the steerer because they are not in charge of the means of propulsion.

 

It is quite amusing and ironic that people wishing to be all historically correct choose to use the word “steering” which they hope will give them gravitas, when in fact all it does is expose the fact that they don’t understand the origins of these words. It’s a bit like people who garnish their boats in fake rivets.

 

Oooops…

 

 

Edited August 28 by nicknorman

[David Mack]

12 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It is quite amusing and ironic that people wishing to be all historically correct choose to use the word “steering” which they hope will give them gravitas, when in fact all it does is expose the fact that they don’t understand the origins of these words.

Or perhaps the term 'steerer' became established in the days of horse drawn boats, and continued to be used for the equivalent role when motor boats came into common use.

[davidg]

Steerer and chimney side/sidebed side.

Enough of this driver/port/starboard nonsense already.

[Momac]

6 hours ago, Justin Smith said:

I find Port/Starboard a bit confusing 

Port is four letter word and so is Left 

[Tam & Di]

The RYA use the ugly words Helm, Helmsman and Helming.

Boatman Tommy Osborn told me that he was teaching one of the wartime trainees who had no sense of left or right. He put a pot of butter on one side of the slide and sugar on the other, and they then progressed well with him telling her to push the tiller over towards the butter or over to the sugar.

Edited August 28 by Tam & Di

[ditchcrawler]

I have a slightly different problem, sometimes I moor the car and park the boat, as for git gaps, just don't go there 

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, davidg said:

Steerer and chimney side/sidebed side.

Enough of this driver/port/starboard nonsense already.

Ok can we move on to “mooring up”? NO! you don’t moor UP! You can either moor, or you can tie up. That’s it.

[DandV]

1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

Ok can we move on to “mooring up”? NO! you don’t moor UP! You can either moor, or you can tie up. That’s it.

There can be a little bit of subtlety creeping in between mooring and mooring up.

Mooring up being a more final act of a trip, or even day, compared to just mooring.

On the driver, steerer, helmsperson, skipper, front. 

Here, the skippers, and often sole crew member, of commercial launch services, such as the marlborough sounds mail runs, are usually known as drivers. And inconsiderate steerers of all small craft w****rs. I think there is some universality in that. 

 

[Wafi]

Coming from a sailing background, I realise I use somewhat inconsistent terminology. The below is what I've become used to, other people's experiences will vary:

 

Narrowboat - Driving. "Do you want to drive?" etc. Left and right for directions. Simples.

 

Sailing dinghy - Helming. In a two-person dinghy, the roles are helm and crew. Directions are always relative to the wind. Up means towards the wind, down means away from it. "Come up a bit", "We'll go down on that puff" etc. Port and Starboard are generally only used to describe the side of the boat the wind is  coming from. "We'll cross the [start] line on starboard [tack]", "Let's get to the starboard layline", "Have you seen that boat crossing us on starboard [tack]?" etc, or to describe mark roundings "Round the next mark to port".

 

Big sailing boat - depends. Short races, fully crewed, it's exactly the same as a dinghy - The person on the stick/wheel helms, directions are up and down. Offshore it's the same, but you might ask someone if they can drive for a bit. Directions are still up and down (relative to the wind) even if you're steering a compass course. When referring to parts of the boat it's windward/leeward (windward shroud, leeward gunwhale etc). The exception is when you're setting up for something like a spinnaker hoist, when you'll specify something like "port pole" to specify that the spinnaker pole will be on the port side of the boat.

When you're motoring, it becomes driving, and directions are left/right. If someone asks you to turn to starboard you'd understand immediately, but probably respond to the unexpected formality with something like "aye aye captain", either in a very posh accent or your best pirate voice, depending on the context. When referring to parts of the boat while motoring, it's now port/starboard - "We'll moor port side to" etc.

 

[Slim]

On 28/08/2026 at 09:18, IanM said:

Steering seems to be our go to.

 

One which annoys me for some reason is helming.  Normally used by the lumpy water lot which have made the transition across to canals.

it's the term i use and for the reason you identify. It's (in my opinion) the correct one to use. 

[midnight cowboy]

What’s wrong with’ ‘driving’? 

On 28/08/2026 at 14:36, Alan de Enfield said:

 

There is no RED PORT LEFT in the bottle.

 

Red light on port side

Port is left hand side  when you are at the helm looking forards

 

 

Boats always came alongside in port on their 'port side'.

The 'steering board' or, 'steering oar' (before wheel steering) was along side the other side of the boat and became "starboard" 

 

But boaters weren’t nautical and never talked about port and starboard- only left and right?!?!?…..

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, midnight cowboy said:

What’s wrong with’ ‘driving’? 

But boaters weren’t nautical and never talked about port and starboard- only left and right?!?!?…..

 

I beg to differ - boaters wewre 'nautical' for 1000s of years before muddy ditch drivers came along.

 

and, the terms port and starboard are known to have been used since the early 1500's

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_starboard#Etymology

 

Starboard derives from the Old English steorbord, steor meaning steer, and bord meaning side. Before ships had rudders, they were steered with a steering oar on the right hand side of the ship, because more people are right-handed.The "steer-board" etymology is shared by the German Steuerbord, Dutch stuurboord, Icelandic stjórnborði, Scandinavian styrbord, French tribord, Italian tribordo, Portuguese estibordo, Spanish estribor and Estonian tüürpoord.

 

 

Edited August 29 by Alan de Enfield

[Ray T]

On 28/08/2026 at 12:00, dogless said:

From all I've read 'steerer' has been the term as @Ray T alluded to, but language is about communication, so as long as folks understand you, call it what you please.

 

i find the use of port and starboard on narrow boats intensely irritating for no rational reason.

 

Perhaps @Ray T can confirm , but I understand  the working boaters referred to 'inside' and 'outside' meaning towpath side or none towpath side rather than the nautical terms ?

 

Rog

Yes.

 

Also Mike H told me often when children were learning to steer a boat the "captain" (also used for the man in charge) would put a piece of cheese on one side of the slide and a piece of bread on the other side, hence "steer to the bread or steer to the cheese." 😀

[IanM]

31 minutes ago, Ray T said:

Yes.

 

Also Mike H told me often when children were learning to steer a boat the "captain" (also used for the man in charge) would put a piece of cheese on one side of the slide and a piece of bread on the other side, hence "steer to the bread or steer to the cheese." 😀

I try to teach Becky to steer using that method. It’s not working too well but we’ll get there 😜 

[David Mack]

17 minutes ago, IanM said:

I try to teach Becky to steer using that method. It’s not working too well but we’ll get there 😜 

Doesn't work for too long if you are hungry!

[Rob-M]

1 hour ago, Ray T said:

Yes.

 

Also Mike H told me often when children were learning to steer a boat the "captain" (also used for the man in charge) would put a piece of cheese on one side of the slide and a piece of bread on the other side, hence "steer to the bread or steer to the cheese." 😀

Joe told me the same, learning to steer to the bread and cheese.