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Comment by tim_hutton | Hacker News Reader

The only was I can remember which is port and starboard is by thinking about boarding an airplane. The steps/tunnel are always docked on the 'port' side, just as boats always dock on the port side. The cockpit/bow is always on your left when you board.

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My shortcut: "port" and "left" have the same number of letters.

r and s are next to each other, l is closer to p than to anything else.

This is the same method I use. I always wondered why they didn't use the cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) or why they didn't use the hours of a clock face to indicate direction. With the clock face, you get even more precision where exactly something happened. Man overboard, 4 o'clock!

In my experience with man overboard drills clock faces are used as you describe. Port/starboard is only for low precision things.

That’d be “3 points abaft the starboard beam”

And further, "port" wine is red, and the red beacon light is on the port side of an aeroplane (with the starboard side having green, and white on the tail)

the shorter word:

    port
    left
    red

the longer word;

    starboard
    right
    green

But if you are working with horses or other draft animals, you work them from the "near" (left) side, and not the "off" (right) side. Next up in directions trivia: shotgun, deasil, and widdershins.

I always remember the phrase ‘there’s no port left in the bottle’. Similarly, the port-side navigation lights are red, the same colour as port.

It's not true in general that boats always dock on the port side.

I’ve always remembered it by “port and left both have 4 letters”. It has always worked for me.

That'll trip you up if you ever board Tally Ho, her front door is on the starboard[0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpulXX1cros

Always? Ferries are boats, demonstrably not true there as they dock both sides.

And "fore" and "aft" are useful to disambiguate the ends of boats that flip 90 degrees in pitch, because the front becomes the top and the back becomes the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULvLeK9O7fY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shPATcV9Dzw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQxQfQU_hsk

An excellent way to remove unwanted crew members!

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