In the manner or style of boats; in a way relating to boats, or in the direction of boat movement (clockwise around a boat).
Compound of 'boat' and '-wise' (Old English 'wīs', meaning 'manner' or 'way'). The '-wise' suffix creates adverbs meaning 'in the manner of', as seen in 'likewise' and 'clockwise'.
'Boatwise' is a rare survival of how '-wise' used to be commonly added to nouns, but it mostly died out except in technical terms like 'clockwise'—showing how productive suffixes can become inactive over time!
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