Knowing your ropes and rode
When you go to the marine chandlers or even the hardware store, you will not see any ‘rode’ for sale – you can only buy rope. But what it is called on a boat depends on where you use it. When you attach it to the anchor it becomes the rode. If you use it to tie the boat up to the dock it is a line. Attached to the mast it becomes part of the rigging, while the ropes that pull a sail up or down are called halyards. When tied to the front of a dinghy it is a painter. Arguably the only ropes on the boat are the tow rope and the rope to ring the bell, both absent on most modern boats.
Having cleared that all up, the term ‘rode’ actually refers to three components of the anchoring system: The rope portion, the
