Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Rigid-inflatable boat

A rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) or rigid-hulled inflatable boat, (RHIB) is a light-weight high performance and high capacity boat built with a solid, shaped hull and flexible tubes at the gunwale. The design is steady and seaworthy. The inflatable collar means that resilience is not lost if a great quantity of water is shipped aboard. The RIB is an expansion of the inflatable boat.
We can use RIBs as rescue craft, safety boats for sailing, dive boats or tenders for larger boats and ships because of their trivial draught, high maneuverability, speed and relative immunity to damage in low speed collisions are advantages in these applications.

RIBs are generally designed as hydroplaning hulls, it has 7 meters length. The speed of the RIB depends on its weight, power, load, and sea conditions. A standard RIB of about 10 metres of length with two parallel rows of seating down the centre of the craft is propelled by two Johnson 200 Horsepower engines, with the aim of getting the craft to roughly 75 knots before jumping 10 ft off the tops of waves.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Punt

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, planned for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt; the punter normally propels the punt by pushing beside the river bed with a pole.
Punts were initially built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling but in modern times their use is almost wholly confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames.
A customary river punt differs from many other types of wooden boat in that it has no keel, stem or sternpost. In its place it is built rather like a ladder with the main structure being two side panels connected by a series of 4 in (10 cm) cross planks, known as "treads", spaced about 1 foot (30 cm) apart.
The first punts are traditionally linked with the River Thames in England and were built as small cargo boats or platforms for fishermen. Pleasure punts — particularly built for recreation — became popular on the Thames between 1840 and 1860. Some other boats have a similar shape to a traditional punt — for example the Optimist training dinghy or the air boats used in the Everglades — but they are normally built with a box construction instead of the open ladder-like design of a traditional Thames pleasure punt.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Wherry

The Norfolk wherry is a black-sailed trader, kind of boat on The Broads in Norfolk. It is double-ended with the pole steeped well forward, tinted black with a single gaff sail. Mostly clinker-built, it would carry about 25 tons of goods.
Wherries were able to arrive at better boats just off coast and take their cargoes off to be transported inland through the broads and the rivers.
Before wherries, there was the Norfolk Keel, a quadrangle rigged, transom sterned clinker-built boat, 54 feet by 14 feet, and able to carry 30 tons of goods. The keel had been built since the middle Ages and the plan probably went back to the Viking invasion. After 1800, the Norfolk Keel (or 'keel wherry') disappeared, partly since a wherry could be sailed with fewer crew, and it had limited maneuverability and lacked speed.
A special wherry wheelbarrow was used to unpack cargo, e.g. stone, from the wherries. It was made from wood and strengthens with iron bands. It had no legs; therefore it could be rested on the 11 inches wide plank on the surface of the wherry.