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Actually had one of these on my boat when I was growing up. Vital piece of tech. (startrek.website)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/funny@lemmy.world
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[–] [S] 55 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

Left and Right rely on the orientation of the person. So if I'm looking ahead at you, and you're looking at me, my left is different than yours. However, port and starboard don't change based on position of the viewer but the position of the vessel. Cuts out any ambiguity.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Like driver's side and passenger side on a car. It doesn't even matter where it was made and it will work out as long as they look for the steering wheel.

    *Except the McLaren F1 and probably a few others.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Still doesn't seem necessary. Your orientation doesn't matter if you always take the direction as if you were in the drivers seat (captains chair). It's the same with cars, left side is drivers side, right side is passenger (unless you're in one of those backwards countries, then left would be passenger, right would be driver, but it's still the same side of the vehicle).

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 years ago*

    Your orientation doesn’t matter if you always take the direction as if you were in the drivers seat

    Correct. And you would refer to that as something specific because if you just said left people might think that you are talking about your personal left. So you come up with short hand to mean the left when facing the front of the ship, and right when facing the front of the ship. The words that were agreed upon for this purpose? Port and starboard.

    On a ship people will not be facing the same direction at all times. This is why the shorthand was invented. As someone who actually spent time on boats and where this was important, trust me. It's necessary.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It's the ship version of stage left and stage right for theatre. Or drivers side and passenger side for cars.

    We use these types of phrases all the time to avoid any ambiguity.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Left is left, right is right. If you're basing it off how you or others are facing, you're a moron. The orientation is based off where it would be if you were in the drivers seat. It's really not hard.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Morons exist, you may not have time to clarify my right or your right. When relying on critical timing, you want to cut that out. If you have ever heard someone say "my right or your right" when you've said right, concede the argument. There is a reason and if there was not they wouldn't have been created.

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