Difference between the UK and the US !!

We drive/make RHD cars in britian

in the USA you drive/make LHD cars

so why in the USA do you make RHD boats ??????????????

 

Ummmmmm.... pretty tough question. Maybe because there's no traffic on the sea.

 

Umm, an entirely different mood on the fourth of July...?

 

Why does the UK make left drive airplanes?

 

You have to be kidding. Come to MD, FL, NC, SC, SOCAL. You want sea traffic. You got it!
RHD goes back to horse and buggy which, for the Amish are still RHD.

 

Nice.

 

LOL LOL ---- very good !!!!!

 

You guys do realise that in the UK almost nobody knows why the 4th of July is celebrated in the US...

 

That's because the 4th of July is not what we celebrate...we celebrate Independence Day which happens to be on July 4th...

 

...that was kinda my point.

 

I just think they are contradictory on purpose Steve, just to wind us lot up

I mean simple things like Christmas they change to 'thanks giving' and Autumn they call 'fall'. The only thing we thought they couldnt mess around with was the motorbike and then they go and call it a 'motor cycle' and then Harley Davidson really go and rub salt in the wound

 

Simple answer:

The Erie Canal. (Car on land, boat in the water.)

 

To answer the original question, because we had boats before we had cars.

The modern boat steering wheel is on the right side because a long time ago boats around the world used to have a steering oar/tiller on the right side. It had to be standardized to be on the right side and traffic rules set up to "keep right" so that when boats passed each other head on, they'd do so port to port and wouldn't hit their steering oars together.

Of course things progressed and we got rudderns on the stern and boats began to be steered from the center. But I guess the steering wheel on the right is just tradition held over from the days of the steering oar. (being on the right does makes it easier to park at docks/piers since you can see the right side of your boat better and not smash it up).

 

How's that? I suspect the Brits do why we celebrate Independence Day...

 

You are 'parking' on the historically wrong side, since the port side was the side to the port, and the steering board (starboard) side was away from the port to keep it free to operate. Of course on a modern boat this doesn't much matter.

To answer the original question posed in the thread (why American cars and boats steer on different sides,) it is because we rarely, with a certain, notable, long serving senator excepted, confuse our boats and cars.

 

Was July 4th the day we let you have your country back

 

Well, the cars are easy to explain........ You pass right to right so your wheel is on the right. We pass left to left so our wheel is on the left.

Now boats, I guess a wheel on the port side would make more sense............

 

This is why the right side is called the Starboard (steer board) side of the boat. Putting the steering wheel on the right side of a boat also alows us to operate the throttle and transmission controls with the proper shifting hand.

I never could figure how the brits could shift with their left hands.

 

I've heard that the wheel is also on the right to counteract the torque of the engine with the drivers wt.

 

I drove a LHD car recently and it felt so alien to change gears with my right hand.

 

the real reason is that there are no road signs in the water. here in the US we hate road signs. we also have guns. so to prevent drivers from, as we say "shootin' up" road signs the car makers agreed to moved the steering wheel to the left. although there are aids to navigation, some of which are equipped with bells, that present a challenge to the target shooter; most gas powered recreational boaters are too busy cutting off sailboats to engage in "shootin' up" the bouys.

 

love ur car man

 

jimmy, are you still nailing the chick in the avatar ??

 

After we issued a beat down to your professional army with a bunch of militia men

 

2nd Amendment.