In the United States the drivers position in cars is on the left ,why then is it that boats have the helm {drivers side} on the right?

Unlike cars and road vehicles, boats and ships do not travel on different 'sides' of the water, regardless of where in the world they are.

• Boating - Just Stay In Lane

Cars and road vehicles drive on different sides of the road in different countries. In North America, and in the majority of the western world, vehicles drive on the right side of the road; in Great Britain and several other countries, namely India and Japan, they drive on the left.

This complicates the manufacture of motor cars and the complexity of moving them around the world. With boating, however, lane discipline is rather simpler - because it never changes.

There are definitive rules in boating about which direction of traffic has right of way, and these form a critical part of the learning process of the discipline. The rules are applied worldwide and are not subject to change in different countries.

• Conclusions

Although American cars have their driving controls reversed in comparison to, say, British cars - because they drive on the opposite side of the road - this is not necessary for boats, which 'drive' on the 'left' worldwide and therefore mostly have their helms in the same place.