Telltales, Ribbons and the Eternal Port/Starboard Struggle

Telltales, Ribbons and the Eternal Port/Starboard Struggle

While walking past a friend’s boat the other day, something caught my eye — his telltales. Not just the usual three on the jib (top, middle, bottom) like I’ve got, but a whole collection across the leech as well. And even better — they were colour-coded: red on one side, green on the other.

Why hadn’t I thought of this before?

I already struggle to see the top telltale from the crew position — it might as well be in a different postcode. But with colour-coded leech telltales, not only do you get better airflow info, but a helpful hint for remembering port and starboard too.

Red = Port
Green = Starboard

Genius.

Naturally, this led to a deep dive into chandlery websites, hunting for a set of red and green telltales to upgrade my rigging. A few weeks ago, we tried tying red and green ribbons to the stays to help us remember which side was which. They looked great... right up until the wind blew them off and they vanished somewhere downriver.

Now, intellectually I know port is the left-hand side of the boat — same number of letters, easy to remember. But the colour association still throws me, especially when you start factoring in buoys, nav lights, and “is that red my port or its port?” moments.

I understand there are red and green buoys, but at my level, that only adds to the confusion. I need clear, practical reminders — like colour-coded bits of string stuck to things I can see.

---

🚤 If you're learning to sail and still grappling with port, starboard, and sail trim mysteries, you’re not alone.
Check out the full list of 75 essential sailing terms I’ve been learning the hard way on pmrsailing.uk – starting with “Downhaul”!