Lines

[DaBod]

I am a bit embarrassed to ask this, as I feel like I have been around boats long enough to know. I've done my best to figure out a way to phrase a Google search so that it will yield an answer and have perused my boat/sailing books, but to no avail. Even Chapman references the term, but (unless I missed it) doesn't define it.

So with swallowed pride I ask: what does it specifically mean when someone refers to a boat having nice lines? Through context I get the gist of the statement, and I may be overanalyzing, as it could just mean that it figuratively flows well from stem to stern...but I feel like there is more to it than that.

Go easy on me here

[Andrew Troup]

I guess it originates from the assessment of the shape of a prospective boat from the lines drawings: Profile plan, (side view) Body plan (end view), and half-Breadth plan (view from below)

The predominant 'lines' are waterlines (parallel to the water plane) and sections (perpendicular to the long axis)

But the buttock lines and diagonals are also important for assessing the shape, particularly aft

[Andrew Troup]

Here are the lines of the first boat I ever loved

There will never be another first love...


The uppermost view (profile plan) shows the sheer (top line) and the buttocks (which curve down from the sheerline fore and aft)
And of course the profile of the hull (including the stem, canoe body and keel)

The upper half-breadth view shows the waterlines (and an edge-on view of the section locations)

while the lower half-breadth view shows the diagonals, and there's also the curve of sectional (underwater) areas - the one which meets the centreline at the ends of the waterplane - this last curve is the only one which does not define the 'lines' of the yacht, in other words, the shape of the surface.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by DaBod

I am a bit embarrassed to ask this, as I feel like I have been around boats long enough to know. I've done my best to figure out a way to phrase a Google search so that it will yield an answer and have perused my boat/sailing books, but to no avail. Even Chapman references the term, but (unless I missed it) doesn't define it.

So with swallowed pride I ask: what does it specifically mean when someone refers to a boat having nice lines? Through context I get the gist of the statement, and I may be overanalyzing, as it could just mean that it figuratively flows well from stem to stern...but I feel like there is more to it than that.

Go easy on me here

To me it just means that the boat looks graceful on the water.

I wanted three things in my live-aboard boat: I wanted it to be fast, and I wanted good living space, and I wanted nice lines.

IMO I got two out of three. I have an older (1983) Hunter, non-Cherubini. to me it looks like a shoebox with a pointy end. Its big, fat stern is emphasized by two things -- BIG bimini, and netting all the way around the cockpit (to keep the cat in) -- Pfifertex.

But as the song says, 2 out of 3 ain't bad ...

[Hudson Force]

Some lines are more likely to inspire aesthetic appeal than others. I'm partial to a sheer and a tumble home. Today, I had an occasion to dive under my boat and clear the intake to my AC pump from some clumps of filamentous algae. I tried to keep may mind on the task at hand but, as I guided myself while swimming lower, my hands couldn't help but to brace against the curve of her bilge. My glide swept me further toward the clam shell cover that was fouled with the strands of filamentous algae and preventing the flow deeper within the spaces leading to the straining pump continuing to pull fluids further and further within my AC system! I came up gasping for air! Lines....lines... oh yes I tie my boat with lines.

[SkiprJohn]

It is referring the the line drawings of a particular boat. If she has nice lines she is aesthetically appealing.
You can look up lines drawing and line drawings and even see many line drawings on sailboatdata.com.
kind regards,

[bobconnie]

Ahh to me and every other old fisherman/sailor, it means the same as when ya say it about a fine Lady !! She has fine lines ! just an old guys idea about that LOL

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by DaBod

...I feel like there is more to it than that.

Nope. No more to it than simply someone expressing the personal opinion that a particular boat looks well-dimensioned and generally nice to them.

[FSMike]

No different to me than saying a Ferrari 250 GTO has nice lines.
Or Halle Berry for that matter.

[Cotemar]

It's all about the look (Lines)