Port and Starboard...which is which?

Are you left-right challenged like me? 

On a boat we don't refer to the "left" and the "right" sides. We refer to them as port and starboard. But how do you remember which is which when you first start out boating? Different people have different little tricks for remembering.

First things first: Port is Left & Starboard is Right.

Here are a couple of ways that I've heard people use to remember...

1. There are four letters in the words PORT and LEFT so you can easily remember that the left side of a ship is the port side. Starboard is a longer word and so is Right compared to Left. Therefore, short to short and long to long.

2. Another way of distinguishing between port and starboard is by using the colours red and green. The port navigation light of a ship is always red and the starboard one is always green. An easy way to remember that is to know that Port (the drink) is red and so by a process of elimination the starboard light will be green.

3. "I re(a)d where a ship left port

4. Use alphabetic ascending order:

P (port) comes before S (starboard)

L (left) comes before R (right)

Therefore, Port will always be Left and Starboard will always be Right.

5. The P in Port comes before the S in Starboard just as the L in Left comes before R in Right, so Port = Left and Starboard = Right.

Last growth spurt on September 18, 2008