Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Motorboat

A motorboat usually speaking is a vessel other than a sailboat or personal watercraft, propelled by an interior combustion engine driving a jet or a propeller. However, the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea defines that any boat propelled by machinery. A speedboat is a small motorboat intended to move quickly, used in races, for pulling water skiers, as patrol boats, and as fast-moving armed attack vessels by the military. Even inflatable boats with a motor attached which may be serving as a high speed patrol boat or as a plodding walker dingy providing transport to and from a mooring buoy are strictly classified as motorboats.
There are three well-liked variations of power plants: inboard, inboard/outboard, and outboard. If the engine is installed within the boat, it's called a power plant; if it's a detachable module attached to the boat, it's normally known as an outboard motor.
An outboard motor is installed on the rear of a boat and contains the inner combustion engine, the gear decrease (Transmission), and the propeller.
An inboard/outboard contains a hybrid of a power plant and an outboard, where the interior combustion engine is contained inboard and the gear reduction and propeller are outside.
A purely inboard boat contains everything apart from a shaft and a propeller inside the vessel. We have two configurations of an inboard, v-drive and straight drive. A direct drive has the power plant mounted close to the middle of the boat with the propeller shaft straight out the back, where a v-drive has the power plant mounted in the back of the boat facing backwards having the shaft go towards the front of the boat than making a 'V' towards the rear.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Pirogue

A pirogue is a small, flat-botomed boat of a design associated mainly with West African fishermen and the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh. These boats are not typically intended for over-night travel but are light and small sufficient to be easily taken onto land. The design also allows the pirogue to move through very shallow water and be simply turned over to drain any water that may get into the boat. The pirogue's motion comes from paddles that contain one blade (as opposed to a kayak paddle, which has two). It can also be punted with a pole in low water.
There is not one pirogue plan, are several. Besides small pirogues as seen on the picture, there are also pirogues that can hold up to ten men with paddles and also characteristic a main sail. These are not planned (and should not be used) for open waters. They are only (and best) used close to shore.