Boats

Lobster boat

A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. Some boats are commonly carried by a ship or on land using trailers.

A boat consists of one or more buoyancy structures called hulls and some system of propulsion, such as a screw, oars, paddles, a setting pole, a sail, paddlewheels or a water jet.

Parts of a Boat

The roughly horizontal but cambered structures spanning the hull of the boat are referred to as the "deck". In a ship there are often several, but a boat is unlikely to have more than one. The similar but usually lighter structure which spans a raised cabin is a coarch-roof. The "floor" of a cabin is properly known as the sole but is more likely to be called the floor. (A floor is properly, a structural member which ties a frame to the keelson and keel.) The underside of a deck is the deck head. The vertical surfaces dividing the internal space are "bulkheads". Some are important parts of the vessel's structure. The front of a boat is called the bow or prow. The rear of the boat is called the stern. The right side is starboard and the left side is port.

It is somewhat risible in modern practice to call the command area of a large boat the "bridge". It is the cockpit or wheelhouse, depending on its design.

The compartments housing a toilet, and the toilet itself, are known as the "heads", and a trip to this area is a "head call".

In the old days, cordage intended for the delicate hands of a yacht's owner was of linen, later cotton. Therefore cordage used to control a sailing boat, tends to be referred to as "line" rather than rope. Most have specific names, but in general, lines used for raising things like sails and flags are "halyards" while the principal ones for adjusting the positions of the sails are called "sheets".

All the lines and wire collectively are referred to as "rigging". That which is set up in the yard and left is standing rigging. That which is adjustable in use is running rigging. For example, a forestay is standing rigging and a sheet or a halyard is part of the running rigging.

Types of Boats

Derelict: a ship's lifeboat, built of steel and rotting away in the wetlands of Folly Island, North Carolina

• Bangca
• Bateau
• Barge
• Cabin Cruiser
• Canoe
• Catamaran
• Cape Islander
• Catboat
• Coracle
• Cruiser
• Cutter
• Dhow
• Dinghy
• Dory
• Durham Boat
• Dutch Barge
• Felucca
• Ferry
• Folding boat
• Go-fast boat
• Gondola
• Houseboat
• Inflatable boat

A sailboat (racing dinghy) and barge share the Mississippi River

• Jetboat, Jetski
• Jonsboat
• Junk
• Kayak
• Ketch
• Lifeboat
• Log boat
• Luxemotor
• Motorboat
• Narrowboat
• Norfolk wherry
• Outrigger canoe
• Padded V-hull
• Pinnace
• Pirogue
• Powerboat

Tourist schooner in Greece

• Raft
• Rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RIB)
• Rowboat, rowing boat
• Sailboat, sailing boat
• Sampan
• Schooner
• Scow
• Sharpie
• Skiff
• Sloop
• Submarine
• Swift boat
• Tjalk
• Trimaran
• Tugboat
• U-boat
• Water taxi
• Whaleboat
• Yacht
• Yawl

Bathtub racing on a pond in Leipzig, Germany in 2003

Unusual types of boats

Unusual floating vehicles have been used for sports purposes as well. For example, the Bathtub Boat is used in "bathtub races" in many cities, although it originated in Nanaimo, BC, Canada.

Unusual uses of the word "Boat"

• Often in rowing as a racing-type competitive sport, "boat" means the crew and "shell" means the craft. So a university might refer to its first boat, meaning the rowers who make up their best team, rather than their best piece of equipment.
• A submarine is generally referred to as a boat rather than a ship. This dates from the early days of submarine warfare, when submarines were essentially motor torpedo boats which could submerge. In the modern combat environment where a typical attack submarine is the size of a destroyer and equipped with either a nuclear reactor or air independent propulsion which can allow it to stay submerged for months or weeks (and boomers are even larger, on the order of old-style battleships), this use is something of an anachronism.
• A ship can be informally known as a boat, especially by its crew. This use is uncommon in the case of a warship.
• In Great Lakes shipping, "boat" refers to any vessel, even one which would normally be considered a "ship" on the ocean.
• In some versions of cockney rhyming slang, "boat" means face, from "boat race".
• The term "gravy boat" is used to describe a small jug used to dispense meat gravy at the dining table. Similarly: "sauce boat".
• A boat can also be one of the massive cars manufactured in America from the 1950s through the 1970s.
• A boat, short for full-boat is another term for a full-house in the card game poker.

Look up boat in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Boat

• Boat building
• Cruising
• Electric boats
• Jet boat
• Jet sprint boat racing
• Offshore powerboat racing
• Sport
• Yachting

External links

• Boating Directory
• FirstBoat.com Information about boating, particularly for new boaters
• DBA - Dutch Barge Association Living aboard ex-commercial barges or any other type of broad-beam inland waterways craft