Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 (context nautical English) The vertical distance between the waterline and the uppermost watertight deck of a vessel. 2 The distance between a water level and the top of something that contains or restrains it (such as a dam). 3 The distance between the top of sea ice and the water level. Etymology 2
n. a type of skateboard which simulates the movement of a snowboard when used on a downhill coarse, allowing snowboarding techniques, which has an addition of two centerline casters that extend below the traditional skateboard wheels and bogies.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Freeboard may refer to:
- Freeboard (nautical), the height of a ship's deck above the water level.
- Freeboard (skateboard), a six-wheeled skateboard designed to act like a snowboard on pavement.
- In civil engineering, the amount of watertight surface between a given level of lake, sea or river water and the lowest possible entry point during flooding or large waves.
- The height of an ice floe above the water surface.
In sailing and boating, a vessel's freeboard is the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship. In commercial vessels, the latter criterion measured relative to the ship's load line, regardless of deck arrangements, is the mandated and regulated meaning.
1. Nautical.
a. the distance between the level of the water and the upper surface of the freeboard deck amidships at the side of a hull: regulated by the agencies of various countries according to the construction of the hull, the type of cargo carried, the area of the world in which it sails, the type of water, and the season of the year. Compare load line. b. (on a cargo vessel) the distance between the uppermost deck considered fully watertight and the official ship's load line. c. the portion of the side of a hull that is above the water.2. Civil engineering. the height of the watertight portion of a building or other construction above a given level of water in a river, lake, etc.
In yachts, a low freeboard is often found on racing boats, for weight reduction and therefore increased speed. A higher freeboard will give more room in the cabin, but will increase weight and may compromise speed. A higher freeboard also helps weather waves and reduce the likelihood of being washed over by full water waves on the weather deck. A low-freeboard boat is susceptible to taking in water in rough seas. Freighter ships and warships use high freeboard designs to increase internal volume which also allows them to satisfy IMO damage stability regulations due to increased reserved buoyancy.
A freeboard is a specialist skateboard designed to closely simulate the behaviour of a snowboard. Freeboards were developed to allow snowboarders to transition to skateboarding (as non-winter transport) without the need to adapt to a smaller deck and narrower wheel-base.
Usage examples of "freeboard".
Canute Freeboard looked up and down the crooked length of Leptophlebo Street.
Even light, her freeboard could not have been more than fourteen or so feet.
The high freeboard, and streamlined shape, of the nuclear subs, makes it difficult to land from them, except to a properly constructed jetty or mother boat.
The freeboard of the canoe was no more than two and a half inches, and the little waves continually lapped over the side.
She had no inside ballast, her iron keel weighed five tons, but her deep draught and high freeboard made her very stiff.
The remaining four inches of freeboard did not diminish as the days went by, and the mate seemed almost disappointed.
The original, with such a low freeboard, had been notably unseaworthy.
But this morning the girls would have to stand in the cold a long time, for there was a sharp wind off the sea and the lumbering bulk of the carrier presented so much freeboard for the wind to blow against that tugs with limited maneuvering space could not hold her from crashing into the quay, and emergency measures were clearly necessary.
The houseboats had only about five feet of freeboard, so even on a quiet day like this waves whacked the bottom of the platform or even washed onto it as the hulls rose and fell on different cycles.
There was very little freeboard, the thick, muddy water coming within an inch or so of slopping over the sides.
We ran off on the other tack, figuring on getting to windward of her, whereupon she went off on the other tack herself, and we saw she was a schooner with a raking stern and bow and almost no freeboard, so that she seemed plastered to the water.
It continued to float, rising above every wave, but there was no freeboard and the surf of every breaking wave rode clear across it, washing around me like a river washing around a boulder.
The raft, when I launched it, proved more stable than I had expected, but it had almost no freeboard and I hugged the shore, scared of deep water.
It came slowly against the sluggish current, sitting so low in the water that only a few inches of freeboard showed, while its load was a great shaggy hump on which sat a dozen black men.
But smooth out tee lines, give some deadrise an' some more dept' of hull, lower tee freeboard fore an' aft an' bring it up some in between, an' you gots you'self a real tiddly ship.