Port is the left-hand side of a boat and starboard is the right-hand side, both as you face the bow. They stay the same whichever way you yourself are facing.
On a boat, port means the left-hand side and starboard the right-hand side, as seen by someone standing on board and looking forward towards the bow. The words belong to the boat, not to the person. “Left” and “right” change when you turn round; port and starboard don’t. If someone at the stern facing aft says “starboard”, they mean the same side as someone at the bow facing forward.
A few ways to remember them:
- Port and left both have four letters.
- Port wine is red, and the port side shows a red light.
- The navigation lights follow the same pattern: a red sidelight on the port side and a green one on the starboard side. Seeing another boat’s lights at night tells you which side of her you are looking at.
The word starboard comes from the old “steer board”: before boats had rudders on the centreline, they were steered with an oar over the right-hand side. Boats therefore came alongside a quay with their left side, the port side, against it. The left side was once called larboard, but it sounded too much like starboard when shouted, so port replaced it.
The same words describe tacks and directions. A boat with the wind coming over her starboard side is on starboard tack, and something “on the port bow” is ahead of you and to the left. You need these terms for the rules of the road: for example, when two sailing boats on opposite tacks meet, the boat on port tack keeps clear (COLREGs Rule 12).
More in the book: Chapter 1, The sailing boat