As long as we’re being pedantic, when you pay out pitch, you’re not covering the deck with it. You’re making lines of it that go in between the deck planks. It’s basically caulking. You actually have to be careful to not get it everywhere (not least because pitch is really hot when you’re paying it out), so just like when you’re paying out a line, there’s a sense of careful control and easing out the pitch.
Pretty close! It’s tar-soaked hemp fibers (rope traditionally being hemp), called oakum. Sometimes cotton under that for filling if needed. To me it still feels more about carefully easing out, particularly since paying out also has other uses that aren’t rope related, like falling off to leeward after a tack.
Paid : give money for
Payed: nautical term meaning to let out some slack on the rope or to cover the deck in tar/pitch for sealing it
As long as we’re being pedantic, when you pay out pitch, you’re not covering the deck with it. You’re making lines of it that go in between the deck planks. It’s basically caulking. You actually have to be careful to not get it everywhere (not least because pitch is really hot when you’re paying it out), so just like when you’re paying out a line, there’s a sense of careful control and easing out the pitch.
Also, If I understand it correctly it’s also called this because caulking requires jamming pitch soaked rope into the joints so it’s still about rope!
Pretty close! It’s tar-soaked hemp fibers (rope traditionally being hemp), called oakum. Sometimes cotton under that for filling if needed. To me it still feels more about carefully easing out, particularly since paying out also has other uses that aren’t rope related, like falling off to leeward after a tack.
Username checks out.
This is the level of pedantry I can get behind.