gunwale

The Sailor's Word-Book

, or gunnel


Nearly synonymous with plank-sheer (which see); but its strict application is that horizontal plank which covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts. The gunwale of a boat is a piece of timber going round the upper sheer-strake as a binder for its top-work.

♦ Gunwale-to. Vessels heeling over, so that the gunwale is even with the water. When a boat sails with a free wind, and rolls each side, or gunwale, to the water's edge, she rolls gunwale-to.

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