A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which are designed first and foremost for sailing. A dinghy's main use is for transfers from larger boats, especially when the larger boat cannot dock at a suitably-sized port or marina.
Uffa Fox was an English boat designer and sailing enthusiast, responsible for a number of innovations in boat design. Not afraid of courting controversy or causing offense, he is remembered for his eccentric behaviour and pithy quotes, as much as for his original boat designs.
The Jersey Skiff is a beach launched boat first appearing around the end of the 19th century. They were first used as fishing boats, to be launched through the surf, sailed to the fishing grounds and then retrieved through the surf.
A gig is a type of boat. It was optimised for speed under oar, but usually also fitted with a sailing rig for appropriate conditions. The type was in use by Deal boatmen in the 18th century. It first occurred as a naval ship's boat after Deal boatbuilders recommended a different design to boats ordered from them by the Royal Navy to equip the cutters purchased in the 1760s to combat smuggling. The captains of larger warships soon sought permission to substitute a gig for one of the heavier boats which were then used; some even had a gig built at their own expense. The gig therefore became part of the usual complement of ship's boats used in warships.
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically attached to the boat, and the rower drives the oar like a lever, exerting force in the same direction as the boat's travel; while paddles are completely hand-held and have no attachment to the boat, and are driven like a cantilever, exerting force opposite to the intended direction of the boat.
In watercraft, a racing shell is an extremely narrow, and often comparatively long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is equipped with long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks away from the boat, and sliding seats. The boat's long length and semicircular cross-section reduce drag to a minimum. This makes the boat both fast and unstable. It must be balanced by the rowers to avoid tipping. Being able to balance – or "set" – the boat while putting maximum effort into the oars is therefore an essential skill of sport rowing.
In competitive rowing, the following specialized terms are important in the corresponding aspects of the sport:
Selwyn College Boat Club (SCBC) is the official rowing club for members of Selwyn College, Cambridge, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The Selwyn College Boat Club has one of the highest participation rates of novice rowers of any Oxbridge college, and has performed well in the May Bumps and Lent Bumps in recent years. Notable alumni of the Selwyn College Boat Club include Hugh Laurie, Tom Hollander, and Richard Budgett.
Coastal and offshore rowing is a rowing sport performed at sea. In North America, this sport is often called open water rowing.
The Los Gatos Rowing Club was started in 1979 to provide what was then mostly an eastern U.S. sport, to the kids in the Santa Clara Valley. In the past 20 years, more than 2,000 kids from 15 different high schools have passed through the program. Many have gone onto colleges and universities to row competitively, several have received rowing scholarships, and a few have been selected for Junior National Camps and are trying for the Olympics.
The word Drascombe is a trademark that was first registered by John Watkinson who applied it to a series of sailing boats which he designed and built in the period 1965–79 and sold in the United Kingdom (UK). They comprised the Coaster, Cruiser Longboat, Dabber, Drifter, Driver, Gig, Launch, Longboat, Lugger, Peterboat, Scaffie, Scaith and Skiff, together with a few other one-offs. They have wide and deep cockpits, adaptable boomless rigs and high bulwarks.
Llandaff Rowing Club is a sport rowing club based on the River Taff in Llandaff, a district in the city of Cardiff, Wales. The club was founded in 1946 and is affiliated to the Welsh Amateur Rowing Association and to British Rowing.
Mike Davis was a boat builder who was a hands-on advocate for making recreational boat usage available on the Hudson River from New York City and New Jersey.
The St. Ayles Skiff is a 4 oared rowing boat, designed by Iain Oughtred and inspired by the traditional Fair Isle skiff. The boat’s hull and frames are built using clinker plywood and it measures 22’ with a beam of 5’ 8”. It is normally crewed by four sweep rowers with a coxswain.
Swan 36 is a fin keeled, fiberglass constructed masthead sloop first manufactured by Nautor's Swan in 1967. The first Swan sailing yacht ever produced by the firm, it was designed to serve recreationally but also compete in the One Ton Cup.
The Village Community Boathouse is a Manhattan-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting rowing, boat building, environmental stewardship and human-powered recreational boating on the Hudson River and the New York Estuary.
Michael "Mike" Matson is an American ocean rower and author who holds 2 Guinness World Records.
Ocean Rowing Society International (ORSI) (prior to 2006 known as ORS), is the governing body for international ocean rowing and official adjudicator of ocean rowing records for Guinness World Records. ORSI was founded in 1983 in California by ocean rower Peter Bird and Kenneth F.Crutchlow FRGS. Current coordinators of ORSI are Tatiana Rezvaya-Crutchlow and Chris Martin, and Fiann Paul.
The Dolphin Club, also known as the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club, is an athletic club in San Francisco, California. It caters to open water swimming, rowing, kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, and 4-wall handball.
The Woods Hole spritsail boat is a small sailing and rowing craft, constructed entirely of wood, and fastened with iron or copper. It was used historically for fishing, island mail deliveries, racing, or day sailing off the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, especially in the waters of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound near the town of Woods Hole, a community of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Although the sprit sailing rig has ancient roots, the Woods Hole spritsail boats were built and used mainly in the period between the US Civil War and World War I, becoming most prevalent during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The original boats were employed almost exclusively in fishing, including handlining for finfish, trap fishing for lobster, or digging with tongs for bivalve shellfish, but by the late 19th century newer and lighter spritsail boats began to be built for recreational sailing and racing. This transition coincided with the emergence of Woods Hole as a summer coastal tourist destination, when the Cape Cod Central Railroad began service from Buzzards Bay in 1872, followed by a private subscription railroad that was extended from Boston in 1884. This spritsail boat has now disappeared as a type, but its cultural significance endures in New England maritime museums, remaining a material symbol of the small community of Woods Hole.
