Boat

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boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is

distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes, or in protected coastal
areas. However, some boats, such as the whaleboat, were intended for use in an offshore
environment. In modern naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard a ship.[1]
Boats vary in proportion and construction methods with their intended purpose, available materials,
or local traditions. Canoes have been used since prehistoric times and remain in use throughout the
world for transportation, fishing, and sport. Fishing boats vary widely in style partly to match local
conditions. Pleasure craft used in recreational boating include ski boats, pontoon boats,
and sailboats. House boats may be used for vacationing or long-term residence. Lighters are used to
move cargo to and from large ships unable to get close to shore. Lifeboats have rescue and safety
functions.
Boats can be propelled by manpower (e.g. rowboats and paddle boats), wind (e.g. sailboats),
and inboard/outboard motors (including gasoline, diesel, and electric).

Differentiation from other prehistoric watercraft


The earliest watercraft are considered to have been rafts. These would have been used for voyages
such as the settlement of Australia sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.
A boat differs from a raft by obtaining its buoyancy by having most of its structure exclude water with
a waterproof layer, e.g. the planks of a wooden hull, the hide covering (or tarred canvas) of
a currach. In contrast, a raft is buoyant because it joins together components that are themselves
buoyant, for example, logs, bamboo poles, bundles of reeds, floats (such as inflated hides, sealed
pottery containers or, in a modern context, empty oil drums). The key difference between a raft and
a boat is that the former is a "flow through" structure, with waves able to pass up through it.
Consequently, except for short river crossings, a raft is not a practical means of transport in colder
regions of the world as the users would be at risk of hypothermia. Today that climatic limitation
restricts rafts to between 40° north and 40° south, with, in the past, similar boundaries that have
moved as the world's climate has varied.[2]: 11
Types
The earliest boats may have been either dugouts or hide boats.[2]: 11 The oldest recovered boat in the
world, the Pesse canoe, found in the Netherlands, is a dugout made from the hollowed tree trunk of
a Pinus sylvestris that was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is
exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands.[3][4] Other very old dugout boats have also
been recovered.[5][6][7] Hide boats, made from covering a framework with animal skins, could be
equally as old as logboats, but such a structure is much less likely to survive in an archaeological
context.[8]: ch 4 Northern Europe
Plank-built boats are considered, in most cases, to have developed from the logboat. There are
examples of logboats that have been expanded: by deforming the hull under the influence of heat,
by raising up the sides with added planks, or by splitting down the middle and adding a central plank
to make it wider. (Some of these methods have been in quite recent use – there is no simple
developmental sequence). The earliest known plank-built boats are from the Nile, dating to the third
millennium BC. Outside Egypt, the next earliest are from England. The Ferriby boats are dated to the
early part of the second millennium BC and the end of the third millennium.[8]: ch 4 Northern Europe; Mediterranean
Region
Plank-built boats require a level of woodworking technology that was first available in
the neolithic with more complex versions only becoming achievable in the Bronze Age.[9]: 59

Types
Boats with sails in Bangladesh
Main article: List of boat types
Boats can be categorized by their means of propulsion. These divide into:

1. Unpowered. This involves drifting with the tide or a river current.


2. Powered by the crew-members on board, using oars, paddles or a punting pole or
quant.
3. Powered by sail.
4. Towed – either by humans or animals from a river or canal bank (or in very shallow
water, by walking on the sea or river bed) or by another vessel.
5. Powered by machinery, such as internal combustion engines, steam engines or by
batteries and an electric motor.
Any one vessel may use more than one of these methods at different times or in
combination.[10]: 33
A number of large vessels are usually referred to as boats. Submarines are a prime example.
[11]
Other types of large vessels which are traditionally called boats include Great Lakes
freighters, riverboats, and ferryboats.[12] Though large enough to carry their own boats and heavy
cargo, these vessels are designed for operation on inland or protected coastal waters.

Terminology
Further information: Glossary of nautical terms
The hull is the main, and in some cases only, structural component of a boat. It provides both
capacity and buoyancy. The keel is a boat's "backbone", a lengthwise structural member to which
the perpendicular frames are fixed. On some boats, a deck covers the hull, in part or whole. While
a ship often has several decks, a boat is unlikely to have more than one. Above the deck are
often lifelines connected to stanchions, bulwarks perhaps topped by gunnels, or some combination
of the two. A cabin may protrude above the deck forward, aft, along the centerline, or cover much of
the length of the boat. Vertical structures dividing the internal spaces are known as bulkheads.
The forward end of a boat is called the bow, the aft end the stern. Facing forward the right side is
referred to as starboard and the left side as port.

Building materials
See also: Boat building
Traditional Toba Batak boat (c. 1870), photograph by Kristen

Feilberg Fishing boats in Visakhapatnam, India


Until the mid-19th century, most boats were made of natural materials, primarily wood, although bark
and animal skins were also used. Early boats include the birch bark canoe, the animal hide-
covered kayak[13] and coracle and the dugout canoe made from a single log.
By the mid-19th century, some boats had been built with iron or steel frames but still planked in
wood. In 1855 ferro-cement boat construction was patented by the French, who coined the name
"ferciment". This is a system by which a steel or iron wire framework is built in the shape of a boat's
hull and covered over with cement. Reinforced with bulkheads and other internal structures it is
strong but heavy, easily repaired, and, if sealed properly, will not leak or corrode.[14][15]
As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger
wooden boats, and the Bessemer process (patented in 1855) cheapened the cost of steel, steel
ships and boats began to be more common. By the 1930s boats built entirely of steel from frames to
plating were seen replacing wooden boats in many industrial uses and fishing fleets. Private
recreational boats of steel remain uncommon. In 1895 WH Mullins produced steel boats of
galvanized iron and by 1930 became the world's largest producer of pleasure boats.
Mullins also offered boats in aluminum from 1895 through 1899 and once again in the 1920s,[16] but it
was not until the mid-20th century that aluminium gained widespread popularity. Though much more
expensive than steel, aluminum alloys exist that do not corrode in salt water, allowing a similar load
carrying capacity to steel at much less weight.
Around the mid-1960s, boats made of fiberglass (aka "glass fiber") became popular, especially for
recreational boats. Fiberglass is also known as "GRP" (glass-reinforced plastic) in the UK, and
"FRP" (for fiber-reinforced plastic) in the US. Fiberglass boats are strong and do not rust, corrode, or
rot. Instead, they are susceptible to structural degradation from sunlight and extremes in
temperature over their lifespan. Fiberglass structures can be made stiffer with sandwich panels,
where the fiberglass encloses a lightweight core such as balsa[17] or foam.
Cold molding is a modern construction method, using wood as the structural component. In one cold
molding process, very thin strips of wood are layered over a form. Each layer is coated with resin,
followed by another directionally alternating layer laid on top. Subsequent layers may be stapled or
otherwise mechanically fastened to the previous, or weighted or vacuum bagged to provide
compression and stabilization until the resin sets. An alternative process uses thin sheets of plywood
shaped over a disposable male mold, and coated with epoxy.
Propulsion
See also: Marine propulsion
The most common means of boat propulsion are as follows:

 Engine
o Inboard motor
o Stern drive (Inboard/outboard)
o Outboard motor
o Paddle wheel
o Water jet (jetboat, personal water craft)
o Fan (hovercraft, air boat)
 Man (rowing, paddling, setting pole etc.)
 Wind (sailing)

Buoyancy
Main article: Buoyancy
A boat displaces its weight in water, regardless whether it is made of wood, steel, fiberglass, or even
concrete. If weight is added to the boat, the volume of the hull drawn below the waterline will
increase to keep the balance above and below the surface equal. Boats have a natural or designed
level of buoyancy. Exceeding it will cause the boat first to ride lower in the water, second to take on
water more readily than when properly loaded, and ultimately, if overloaded by any combination of
structure, cargo, and water, sink.
As commercial vessels must be correctly loaded to be safe, and as the sea becomes less buoyant in
brackish areas such as the Baltic, the Plimsoll line was introduced to prevent overloading.

European Union classification


Since 1998 all new leisure boats and barges built in Europe between 2.5m and 24m must comply
with the EU's Recreational Craft Directive (RCD). The Directive establishes four categories that
permit the allowable wind and wave conditions for vessels in each class:[18]

 Class A - the boat may safely navigate any waters.


 Class B - the boat is limited to offshore navigation. (Winds up to Force 8 & waves up to 4
metres)
 Class C - the boat is limited to inshore (coastal) navigation. (Winds up to Force 6 &
waves up to 2 metres)
 Class D - the boat is limited to rivers, canals and small lakes. (Winds up to Force 4 &
waves up to 0.5 metres)
Europe is the main producer of recreational boats (the second production in the world is located in
Poland). European brands are known all over the world - in fact, these are the brands that created
RCD and set the standard for shipyards around the world.[19]

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