Okey dokey, well i sure am glad i don’t go boating in the states let alone Albuquerque, New Mexico.
First thing its the STARBOARD side of the boat not the right side. Secondly, old mate at the boat shop doesn’t have a clue, a propeller can be either right handed or lefthanded (clockwise or anitclockwise) he may be making a vague reference to a phenomena called transverse thrust in which the stern of the boat gets pushed toward the direction the prop is turning, also known as the paddlewheel effect.
But very simply this rule has been in effect since as long as international boating has, with the need for ‘road’ rules that must be known throughout the seas, they (somebody) decided all boats shall pass port to port (left to left) in a head-on situation, hence in a narrow channel you must be able to monitor how close you are to the side of the channel.
Sorry, but it doesn’t, at least without further expansion. The question was asked about small, automobile-sized boats. On the other hand, your explanation makes no real sense for ships on the scale of the Queens. And on yet another hand, as far as I have noticed, the wheel was dead center in the days of tall ships.
Correct, mostly dead center, but where there is only room for two seats - as in a small dinghy - the wheel is on the right. As stated (working from memory five years ago), the throttle was on the right side as well, mounted on the gunwale (? spelling and exact terminology -?) (It’s pronounced “gunnle”.)
What just occured to me, though, was just how long this has been going on. The word “starboard” originally meant “steering board side” - that’s the side the rudder was attached to.
Expanding a bit on what Civil Guy said, in olden times, the rudder was on the right side of the many boats instead of on the stern (back.) So, when sailors came to a port, they’d tie up to a dock on the left (port) side, so the dock wouldn’t tear up the steer board (starboard) as the boat rocked in the choppy water.
From there, I’ve only got the same basic speculation anyone else could come up with, similar to that for English / Japanese versus darned near everyone-else highways.
[Basic speculation]Somebody figured the rudder and tiller needed to go on one side or the other because the stern was ‘pointy’ just like the bow, because that was a good way to build boats. If the steering had to go one one side, it might as well be the right side because most people are right-handed. …And as the years unfolded, well, heck, “we’ve always done it that way.”[/BS]
More properly a steering oar. Rudders, properly so called, are in the center.
In this case, it was obviously a question of the strong arm of the steersman. For all I know, this could be the ultimate answer to the original question.
The theory that I have always heard is based on the rules of the road for power vessels in a crossing situation, that is going diagonally across each other, but not meeting head on or one overtaking the other from astern.
In a crossing situation, the vessel with the other vessel on its starboard bow (i.e. looking out at the forward right) is required to give way to the other vessel. The other vessel (which will see the first vessel on its port bow) has the right of way, and should maintain its course and speed to permit the other vessel to avoid it.
The red and green bow lights reflect this, because the light on the starboard bow is green, indicating that a vessel approaching from that quarter has right of way. The light on the port bow is red, indicating that a vessel approaching from that quarter (i.e. having the other vessel on its own starboard bow in a crossing situation) must give way.
With that explanation, I have heard that where the steering wheel on a small powerboat is not located in the center, it will be located to starboard to give greater visibility to approaching vessels to which must be avoided under the rules of the road.
Um, could be… but… on U.S. highways, there’s a similar rule: the car on the right has the right of way. Makes sense in that situation, since with two cars stopped at an intersection, the car on the right has the shorter distance to go to ‘get out of the way’ of the car on the left. As near as I can figure, it is very close to the boating rule. (Maybe we should put red and green running lights on cars, too? Nah…)
But automobiles in North America have the driver’s side on the left.
This is the explanation I’ve always heard. The steering oar went over the right-hand side for maximum convenience of a right-handed steersman, and has stayed there for several thousand years. I’m curious as to whether this has carried across into aircraft - does the cap’n sit on the right and the co-pilot on the left?
I can’t speak to the real thing, but every single movie, TV show (or comic book, for that matter) that I’ve seen in over 50 years has put the pilot on the left and the copilot on the right.
