Bow of a boat

The bow is the forward end of a boat, and any direction toward it is forward, or fore. A bow is shaped to move the hull through the water with little resistance and to keep water from regularly washing over the top. On the runabout drawing, the highlighted fittings are the ones found up at the bow of a small powerboat.

Bow, stem and forefoot

Three words describe the front of a hull at different scales. The bow is the whole forward region. The stem is its forward edge, rising from the keel to the top of the hull, and the forefoot is the part of the bow where the stem meets the keel. On the side view you can follow the stem from the deck down past the red waterline to the forefoot.

Fittings at the bow

The bow eye, an eye bolt on the stem, gives an attaching point when the boat sits on a trailer. Higher up, the bow rail is a metal guardrail around the foredeck, and a horned cleat gives the mooring or anchor line something to be made fast to. The sidelights on each side of the bow show red to port and green to starboard. On this boat type, the open seating area in the bow, in front of the helm, is what puts the “bow” in bowrider.

Five bow profiles

The sheet draws five bows on hulls of one length, waterline fixed, so the differences sit in the stem alone. A plumb bow’s stem stands straight up and down. A raked stem is straight and slopes forward as it rises. A spoon bow overhangs the water, its underside curved like the bowl of a spoon, while a clipper bow reaches forward above the waterline in a hollow, concave curve. The bulbous bow belongs mostly to ships: a rounded swelling of the hull at the bow, below the waterline.

Seen from ahead, many bows also flare. Flare is the outward slant of the hull sides as they rise from the waterline, and in the hull atlas it shows as forward sections that widen toward the deck.