Talk:Gig (boat)

Issues on Photos and References
Several of the photo links buried in the text go directly to photos at different non-wiki sites, rather than the customary wikicommons. Have these individual hosting sites given Wikipedia permission to hotlink their images and bandwidth? And why are some of these links not tagged as leading somewhere away from Wikipedia? Also, there are no cited references, indexes, or footnotes indicating sources. The subject of the article itself I find interesting and informative. An experienced editor needs to bring this article to wikiworthiness. The current article's style seems precise enough for the layman, but it sort of reads like a school assignment report. My compliments on it anyway. 184.98.139.164 (talk) 20:29, 10 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I've deleted the image links. Most of the images were not suitable for inclusion because they do not state that the boat in question is a captain's gig. If somebody can find context showing that these boats are specifically captains' gigs, it may be possible to restore them but note WP:EL. The images were:
 * (image)
 * French Captain's Sailing Gig @1918, Brest France (image caption does not say it's a captain's gig — could be any sailing boat)
 * Captain's Gig, USS Wisconsin 1950's
 * A "Modern Fiberglass Captain's Gig" (no caption and the URL only says it's a gig, not specifically a captain's gig; URL deleted because linking to a manufacturer's site violates WP:LINKSTOAVOID point 14.)
 * I also deleted the link to the diagrams of the Star Trek "captain's yacht" since there's already a wikilink to the relevant section of the Star Trek page. Dricherby (talk) 10:13, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Breadth of article
The gig, as a boat type, is a much wider subject than the US Navy usage of this word. The article barely addresses that, and the pictures suggest that gigs are only used in a naval context. In reality gigs were used in non-naval contexts. We are probably all aware of the Cornish pilot gigs, but such types (in their regional forms) could be found in many places, especially off the Suffolk coast and serving shipping into the Mersey. Some were part of the regular equipment of large yachts.

The article needs a big rewrite, with focus moved away from the US Navy "captains gig" (which appears now to be obsolete). ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 13:24, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Short description
The various short descriptions that have been offered for the article seem to have little relevance to the content of the article. Right now, we have "type of small boat". The word "small" presumably relies on the insertion of the word "small" into the text of the lead. That is not supported by the rest of the article.

The definition of a boat, which is not particularly precise, includes that it is smaller than a ship. So what is a small boat? If we ignore the anomaly of submarines being called boats, the word boat already denotes size. None of the references describe a gig as a small boat. I think that is a term reserved for (a) journalists who are trying to pad out an article and (b) something like the photo provided. Racing pilot gigs are 32 foot long. That is longer than many recreational yachts. I have therefore cut the word "small" out of the short description and the lead. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 09:33, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

"historically"
Putting the word "historically" in the lead is misleading, as gigs are still made today. I have put a new section in the article to make this clear, with a photo of a boat with its date of build. I had thought that the links in the article to the Cornish pilot gig were sufficient clue – clearly I was wrong. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 09:33, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

Ref for removal of USN captain's gigs
The ref supporting the article content on the removal of the USN captain's gig as an economy measure is now a dead link. If anyone has a current source that would be welcome. I am relaxed that the statement is true as if you search for the word "gig" in the USN's own site you only get one mention that applies to a boat (regarding USS Constitution) and all the rest are much more modern uses of the word and clearly not boats. ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 09:52, 16 July 2023 (UTC)