Where is the Yardarm

[Sunset Rising]

Stemming from Cotswoldman's post....

 

Where is the yardarm on a narrowboat I want to know when I can have a drink ( just tea mind ).

 

If it is a ficticious (sp)

yardarm can I put it at waterlevel ?

[saltysplash]

It matters not how high or low the yard arm is, You still have to wait for the sun to go over it, ie pass over the top. Then the sound of bottles and cans being opended can be enjoyed

[Strads]

would agree - the sun "should pass it", however carefull riging placement can enable a wide range of timing circumstances to be covered to justifying suitable imbibing & refreshment breaks.

 

By rotating one's person in relation to the sun (on a sunny day) you should get a shadow over you arm as you raise it to have a sip - and therefore its over yar-arm...

 

 

COAT....

 

merci....

[Ray T]

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

"Sun over the yardarm"This phrase is widely used, both afloat and ashore, to indicate that the time of day has been reached at which it is acceptable, variously, to have lunch or (more commonly) to have an alcoholic beverage. In modern parlance, the latter usage typically refers to early evening, but the phrase is thought originally to have referred to late morning and to the sun's ascent past a particular yard.

 

The actual time that the sun would pass a particular yard would depend greatly on the ship's latitude and heading, as well as the height of her masts, but the phrase seems to have originated in the north Atlantic, where, in summer, this would have typically been at about 11 a.m.. This was the time at which, by custom and rule, the first rum "tot" of the day was issued to officers and men (the officers had their tots neat, while the men had theirs diluted with water), hence its connection with taking one's first alcoholic drink of the day.

 

The earliest mention of this phrase collected by the OED is in Rudyard Kipling's From Sea to Sea in 1899, where it is used as a metaphor referring to drinking habits. However, the phrase was in use earlier, in the same context. One example is from the first volume of Life, from the issue of May 31, 1883 [1].

 

Sources:

– M.Quinion (2000), "World Wide Words", retrieved 3 May 2006.

– "The Phrase Finder" (2002), retrieved 3 May 2006.

– ibid. (2002), retrieved 3 May 2006.

 

On a narrowboat it can be wherever you choose to put it!!!

 

 

[Albion]

On a narrowboat it can be wherever you choose to put it!!

 

On a narrowboat I always thought it was on the waterline. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Roger

[mayalld]

Stemming from Cotswoldman's post....

 

Where is the yardarm on a narrowboat I want to know when I can have a drink ( just tea mind ).

 

If it is a ficticious (sp)

yardarm can I put it at waterlevel ?

 

The yardarm on a narrowboat is specifically designed to be lowered to the level of the horizon.

[Sunset Rising]

It matters not how high or low the yard arm is, You still have to wait for the sun to go over it, ie pass over the top. Then the sound of bottles and cans being opended can be enjoyed

 

Hence putting it at the waterline. Sun would get over that pretty early.

[canaldrifter]

I think, for a narrowboat, it would depend on where the boatyard is located, and which direction the canal arm goes.

 

Tone

[bottle]

No, no, no, you are all wrong, the yard arm is the horizon but this can be adjusted to allow for the late rising of the sun in winter.

[Tam & Di]

On a narrowboat I always thought it was on the waterline. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Roger

 

I think it has to be the tiller bar - about a yard long and an arm! You can adjust your reference point according to your need for refreshment, by looking down when stood on the stern deck or up from in the hatches. Even has reference to "bar", so it absolutely has to be right.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Tam & Di

[saltysplash]

Hence putting it at the waterline. Sun would get over that pretty early.

 

 

The sun will still take the same amount of time to be 'over the yard arm' if it was placed on the waterline or on the roof or higher.

 

The sun will rise above the so called arm but will still not be 'over' it till it has reached its zenith.

 

I think the best idea for an imaginary yard arm is as soon as the engine is running and all mooring lines are stowed

[Naughty Cal]

What if the sun doesnt come out at all. As it looks like it wont today

 

The sun will still take the same amount of time to be 'over the yard arm' if it was placed on the waterline or on the roof or higher.

 

The sun will rise above the so called arm but will still not be 'over' it till it has reached its zenith.

 

I think the best idea for an imaginary yard arm is as soon as the engine is running and all mooring lines are stowed

 

I like that one. Thats the one we will use

[Sunset Rising]

What if the sun doesnt come out at all. As it looks like it wont today

 

 

 

I like that one. Thats the one we will use

didn't take you for a pessimist.

[BGA]

I understood that the yardarm was the cross piece on a square rig sailing ship, the sun rising from the horizon would be above the yardarm in the middle of the day, the connection to alcohol would come from the issue of rum to the crew after the sun had risen above the yardarm.

[canaldrifter]

Isn't the yard arm, actually, the lower eyelid, when it opens in the morning?

 

Tone

[Sir Nibble]

In the days when I did a lot of offshore sailing, we were always quite emphatic that the "yardarm", if required, could easily be moved.

[headjog]

If you measure,with your arm out, from the end of your thumb to the end of your nose, you should find it equals a yard ( unless you have short arms, in which case hold a pencil)Thus, you can hold your arm out anywhere in relation to the sun and the sun will be over it, whatever time you like.

[Barry]

Is that a short pencil or a long pencil?

[MIKE P]

Forget the Yardarm!

 

It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

[Sunset Rising]

Forget the Yardarm!

 

It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Ahhh. Of course. A global village virtual yardarm. I should have thought of that.

[mikevye]

Doesn't matter where it is you can splice the mainbrace anywhere anytime!!

[magpie patrick]

Ahhh. Of course. A global village virtual yardarm. I should have thought of that.

 

On December 31st 2006, just after 12 noon, as we boated along the Upper Peak Forest, the scotch whiskey was broached on the basis that 2007 had started to sweep across the planet

[Big H]

In 1991 we had a small narrowboat built and called it Yardarm, comes the dawn CHEERS, if thats the way it takes you.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Big H

[ditchcrawler]

Stemming from Cotswoldman's post....

 

Where is the yardarm on a narrowboat I want to know when I can have a drink ( just tea mind ).

 

If it is a ficticious (sp)

yardarm can I put it at waterlevel ?

I always have a drink while I am looking for it

[bizzard]

Its where certain folk on here will be hanged from if they don't watch it.