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What does GRP and LOA mean in sailing terms?

 

I'm bound to have a ton more silly questions like these, so I figure I'll just start a thread for us newbies.

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GRP = Glass Reinforced Plastic aka fibreglass.

 

Another common abbreviation that you come across in advertisements for small boats is GOP = Glass Over Ply, which basically means a boat primarily built from plywood with a sheath (usually a single layer) of fibreglass.

 

LOA = Length Over All. Most people would just know it as "length". There is a reason for making the distinction but it will get overly complicated.

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LOA is mainly to distinguish between Length Overall and LWL (Waterline Length) which many handicap systems use as a factor. LOA is the total (overall) length including overhangs, LWL is just the length at the waterline (not including overhangs).

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Today's L38

 

Learning 'Sailingo'

 

January 19, 2011 – Waters Everywhere

 

It’s easy for longtime sailors to forget how hard the ‘lingo’ can be for newcomers to learn. We were reminded of this recently when a newbie made the following observations:

 

“A rope is a rope until you bring it aboard a boat. Then it’s a line. Unless it’s used to pull sails, then it’s a sheet. Cut it into pieces and it can become a guy — but never a girl. Or a vang, outhaul, downhaul, gasket, topping lift, jackline, halyard, twing, reef point, traveler, or probably a bunch of other stuff. When you’re done sailing, that same bit of . . . cordage . . . can become a dockline or a spring. But as soon as you coil it up and step onto the dock, it’s a rope again.

 

“Isn’t that right?” he asked.

 

"Um, well . . . yeah. But it can still be a line . . . .”

 

“And you guys are writers, yet you never correct things like ‘down below’ and ‘up forward’. Aren’t those phrases redundant?”

 

By golly, he was right about that, too.

 

“And I’ve seen ‘anchors away!’ used lots of times to mean letting the anchor drop. I’ve also heard it used to mean raise the anchor. Which one’s right?”

 

"Well," we said loudly (relieved to finally get a question we could answer without sounding like dorks), "technically, 'anchors aweigh' — meaning to raise the anchor — is proper. But yes, we’ve often seen them confused, probably because ‘aweigh’ sounds just like ‘away'."

 

He took us to task on a couple other points, but frankly we have no idea why the place where the shrouds and forestay attach to the mast is called the hounds — or why it’s plural. Or why ‘fetch’ has nothing to do with any kind of, er, hound bringing back a stick you’ve thrown. But we were able to confirm that a winch has nothing to do with a wench. Even though some nonsailors also get those two mixed up sometimes.

 

There was more. No, on sailboats, mast cranes aren’t used to lift anything, and tabernacles have nothing to do with Morman choirs. When he started in on why 'ceilings' and 'floors' had nothing to do with their shoreside counterparts, we glanced nervously at our watch. Oh wow, look at the time! — we were, um, late for a meeting. Nice talking to you . . . bye.

 

Sheesh. Okay, okay. Points taken. Some ‘sailingo’ doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

It’s still easier to understand than Australian.

 

- latitude / jr

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The power required to run air conditioning means that you pretty much need to be hooked up to shore power to run it, or you have a genset or engines running to power it. You really only see air conditioning on large and expensive launches.

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Grinna summed it up quite well. There are one or two notable individuals on this forum that take exception to putting what could be called extravagant and possibly unnecessary items on a small or mid-sized yacht.

 

Just don't ask about bow thrusters :shh: Rocket got upset last time.

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I have another.

 

WTF - as in, What The F**K is Grinna on about with this post?

 

The power required to run air conditioning means that you pretty much need to be hooked up to shore power to run it, or you have a genset or engines running to power it. You really only see air conditioning on large and expensive launches.

WTF? is also heard a lot being asked of Tacticians when the boat arrives at the top mark 4 places back in the fleet from where it was the last time :)

 

Tactician - a person who claims to know it all but often finds it very hard to put that knowledge into practice in real life, especially on a race track. Very similar to an Economist actually :lol: :lol:

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WTF - as in, What The F**K is Grinna on about with this post?

 

Don't worry KM, I haven't quite lost my marbles yet. I am merely the victim of some post answering question removal. :wink:

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I thought LWL was load water line?

 

It is.

 

It's the length at the load water line. I just said:

 

LWL is just the length at the waterline (not including overhangs).

 

And decided introducing the 'load' concept was unneccessary complication.

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