Know Your Boat
Know your boat is an essential function for providing a safe boating experience. There are three basic types of boats: power, sail and paddle. Within these, there are two types of boats, displacement and planing hulls.
Displacement Hulls: These boats are capable of pushing the water aside as they move, they are made so they can cut through the water. The boats are slower yet more stable than many as they have a specific percentage of the boat under water. The boats displacement is the weight of the water that is displaced by the boat. For example, when a boat is placed into the water a certain amount of water is moved allowing for the boat to settle into the water and float. The water that was moved, or displaced, by putting the boat in the water, would weigh the same as the boat. Displacement boat hulls have speed limitations due to the friction of moving the boats hull, that’s under water, through the water. A majority of powerboats and sail boats have displacement hulls that allow for a more appealing means of traveling through the water. (Note the picture above. This is a displacement hull where a portion of the boat is underwater slicing through the water as it moves. The boat generates a wake or wave which is the result of energy released from the boat moving through the water.)
Planing Hulls: Another type of boat that initially are a displacement hull then ride up on top of the water given enough power. This boat is typically the ski/wake board boat. They are able to skim on the water with little of the boat emerged under water and generating a small wake. Unlike the displacement hull boats that are pushing water aside, the planing hull boat is riding almost on top of the water. To reach a planing position the boat is initially in displacement mode, cutting through the water. As the speed increases, the bow raises throwing a large wake, the plowing mode. It’s important to maintain visibility as the bow of the boat comes up obstructing the operators vision. As the speed increases the boat reaches the planing mode were it is gliding on the waters surface.