I guess it's about time for me to introduce readers to parts of a sailing boat. The above drawing, taken from the RYA Competent Crew textbook best represents what I want to share. I know it's overwhelming. Appreciate that each part of the boat has a specific name.
Two asides:
The very Malaysian terms gohed and gostan actually came from sailing lingo 'go ahead ie. go forward' and 'go astern ie. go towards the back'.
An old sea captain once told me that the terminology used for boat parts and seafaring activities reflect how far a civilisation has advanced. For centuries, boatbuilding and seafaring activities has been at the forefront of cutting edge technology. Therefore, in his view the more exact terminology used, the more advanced a civilisation had progressed. He used this argument to promote the idea that since boating and seafaring terminology used in the West is more detailed and exacting as compared to East, Western civilisation is more advanced. Some flaws in his argument here. Firstly, having gone through a sampling of both Malay and Western literature on seafaring and boatbuilding, there is no clear distinction on which is the higher civilisation by just referring to to terminologies. In a future post, I will share the Malay terminology of boat parts and the reader would agree with me that it does not lack any details. What I find interesting is that while in general, the literature of the West is focussed on the physical aspects of the seamanship, Malay sailing literature puts emphasis on the non-physical aspects such as the relationship with natural phenomenas and the spiritual. I will elaborate more on this when I complete my transliteration of a very old Malay manuscript on seamanship. Unfortunately, my language abilities limit my exposure to literature from other eastern civilisation.
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