A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational
sailing yacht
A sailing yacht (US ship prefixes SY or S/Y), is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applie ...
. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used
leeboard
A leeboard is a form of pivoting keel used by a sailboat largely and very often in lieu of a fixed keel. Typically mounted in pairs on each side of a hull, leeboards function much like a centreboard, allowing shallow-draft craft to ply waters f ...
s if forced in open water, while modern recreational keelboats have prominent fixed fin keels, and considerable draft. The two terms may draw from cognate words with different final meaning.
A keep boat,
[
] keelboat,
or keel-boat
is a type of usually long, narrow cigar-shaped riverboat,
or unsheltered water
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
which is sometimes also called a poleboat—that is built about a slight
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
and is designed as a boat built for the navigation of rivers, shallow lakes, and sometimes canals that were commonly used in
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
including use in great numbers by settlers making their way west in the century-plus of wide-open western American frontiers.
[
] They were also used extensively for transporting cargo to market, and for exploration and trading expeditions, for water transport was then most effective means to move bulky or heavy cargo.
Keelboats were similar to
riverboat
A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury un ...
s, but like other barges were unpowered and were typically propelled and steered with
oar
An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Rowers grasp the oar at the other end.
The difference between oars and paddles is that oars are used exclusively for rowing. In rowing the oar is connecte ...
s or
setting pole
A setting pole or quant (quant pole) is a pole, handled by a crew member, to move boats, barges (barge pole) or punts by pushing the craft in the desired direction. The pole is used to push against the river or sea bed or, in some cases, the bank ...
s—usually the latter. Keelboats have been used for exploration, such as during the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...
,
but were primarily used to transport
cargo
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
or settlers in the early 19th century.
The process of moving a keelboat upriver was extremely difficult, though current dependent. Most of these keelboats were long and wide. They usually had a cabin in the middle or at the rear, but were sometimes constructed with an open deck.
Mike Fink
Mike Fink (also spelled Miche Phinck)O'Neil, Paul. ''The Old West: The Rivermen''. Time-Life Books, New York. 1975 p. 71 (c. 1770/1780 – c. 1823), called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and river boatman who exempli ...
is probably the most noted keelboater in history.
Historical account of two keelboats published in the original ''
Courier Journal
The ''Courier Journal'',
also known as the
''Louisville Courier Journal''
(and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017,
is the highest circulation newspape ...
'' of
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...
, in 1833:
In Great Britain and Ireland
The term keel was associated in Great Britain with three particular working boat types. The Norfolk Keel ancestor of the
Norfolk Wherry
The Norfolk wherry is a type of boat used on The Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk, England. Three main types were developed over its life, all featuring the distinctive gaff rig with a single, high-peaked sail and the mast stepped well forward.
Dev ...
, the
Humber Keel and the Tyne Keel and their
Keelmen
The Keelmen of Tyne and Wear were a group of men who worked on the keels, large boats that carried the coal from the banks of both rivers to the waiting collier ships. Because of the shallowness of both rivers, it was difficult for ships of any sig ...
. In Ireland the
Howth 17
The Howth 17 is a type of keelboat. It was designed in 1897 and launched in Ireland in 1898. It is the oldest one-design keelboat racing class in the world and it is still racing today to its original design.
History
The original plan of the ...
was designed by Sir Walter Boyd in 1897, and is the oldest
one-design racing keelboat in the world.
Modern keelboats
![Yacht Race Photo D Ramey Logan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Yacht_race_photo_D_Ramey_Logan.jpg)
A keelboat is technically any
sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminology ...
with a
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
—as opposed to a
centerboard
A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...
or
daggerboard
A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, cou ...
. In New Zealand the term keeler is frequently used as a generic alternative - meaning any sailboat with a keel, regardless of size.
World Sailing
World Sailing (WS) is the world governing body for the sport of sailing recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
History
The creation of the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) beg ...
(Former ISAF, Former IYRU) usage differentiates keelboats (including the
12-meter class
The 12 Metre class is a rating class for racing sailboats that are designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. ...
) from generally larger
yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
s, despite overlap in the sizes of boats in the two classes. The Olympic Games used keelboat to describe keeled boats with up to a three-man crew, as opposed to larger-crewed boats such as the 12-metre class.
In some countries yachts can also be differentiated from keelboats with the addition of a toilet or "head" as the term "keelboat" is in some places understood to mean a sailboat with a keel that is designed purely for recreational/racing purposes, while the term "yacht" describes a sailboat designed for overnight transport.
See also
*
'Classic' keelboat classes (List of keelboat classes designed before 1970)
*
Ferryboat
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
*
Flatboat
A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...
*
List of sailing boat types
The following is a partial list of sailboat types and sailing classes, including keelboats, dinghies and multihull ( catamarans and trimarans).
Olympic classes
World Sailing Classes
Historically known as the IYRU (International Yacht Racing ...
*
Keelmen
The Keelmen of Tyne and Wear were a group of men who worked on the keels, large boats that carried the coal from the banks of both rivers to the waiting collier ships. Because of the shallowness of both rivers, it was difficult for ships of any sig ...
*
Norfolk Wherry
The Norfolk wherry is a type of boat used on The Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk, England. Three main types were developed over its life, all featuring the distinctive gaff rig with a single, high-peaked sail and the mast stepped well forward.
Dev ...
*
Riverboat
A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury un ...
*
Mike Fink Keel Boats
Mike Fink Keel Boats (or River Rogue Keel Boats) were small boats that navigated the Rivers of America at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris.
History
The Mike Fink Keel Boats were b ...
*
Lewis and Clark's Keelboat
References
External links
Classic Boat guide to X One Design KeelboatSolent XOD Forum on CrewInCowes.co.uk website* ''The Keelboat Age on Western Waters'', by Leland D. Baldwin, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1941. (provides the authority for the previous linked website)
{{commons category, Keelboats
Mississippi River
Ohio River
American folklore
Riverboats
American frontier
Fur trade
Exploration ships