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Runabout (boat)
Encyclopedia
Motorboat
A motorboat is a boat which is powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gearbox and the propeller in one portable unit.An inboard/outboard contains a hybrid of a...
holding between four and eight people, well suited to moving about on the water. Runabouts can be used for racing, for pleasure activities like fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and water skiing
Water skiing
thumb|right|A slalom skier making a turn on a slalom waterski.Waterskiing is a sport where an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation on a body of water, skimming the surface.-History:...
, or as a ship's tender
Ship's tender
A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship...
for larger vessels. Some common runabout boats are bow rider
Bow Rider
A bow rider is a kind of runabout boat typically between 17' and 30', use stern drive or outboard engines, and hold between six and ten people. To distinguish it from a cuddy boat, it has an open bow area where there are extra seats in front of the helm station...
, center console
Center Console (boat)
Center console is a type of single-decked open hull boat where the console of the boat is in the center of the boat. There is a cabin on some models; these cabins are usually located in the bow and hold small berths for sleeping...
, cuddy boat and walkaround
Walkaround (boat)
A Walkaround boat is a cross between a center console and a cuddy boat or express. Like a center console boat, it is mostly used for fishing and has a full length primary deck or cockpit but also has a small cabin for berths and a head in the center of the boat in front of the console.There are...
.
History
The first runabouts date back to the 1920s and were originally small, fast, powerful varnished wooden boats created to take advantage of the power of outboard motorOutboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...
s such as the first Evinrude
Evinrude Outboard Motors
Evinrude Outboard Motors is a company that builds a major brand of outboard motors for boats. Founded by Ole Evinrude in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1907, it was formerly owned by the publicly traded Outboard Marine Corporation , and is now owned by privately held Bombardier Recreational Products.-...
, introduced in 1909.
In order to gain speed, the hull shape had to be designed to take advantage of hydroplaning; a hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
-like design would allow the boat to skim atop the water's surface at high speed instead of needing to push aside large quantities of water to move forward.
Another design change which followed soon after was the replacement of the tiller
Tiller
A tiller or till is a lever attached to a rudder post or rudder stock of a boat that provides leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder...
and rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
control with a rudder controlled by a steering wheel, allowing the operator a comfortable forward-facing position. A remote lever to allow the engines to be placed into a reverse gear was another early innovation.
The leading builder of 1920s runabouts was John L. Hacker, who founded the Hacker Boat Company in 1908. Hacker was a pioneering naval architect who developed many design innovations, like the 'V-bottom'. His brilliant designs became the model upon which virtually all subsequent runabouts were based.
By 1930, runabouts were available with windshield
Windshield
The windshield or windscreen of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, a type of treated glass, which consists of two curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and are glued...
s to protect the cockpits
Cockpit (sailing)
In the Royal Navy, the term cockpit originally referred to the area where the coxswain was stationed. This led to the word being used to refer to the area towards the stern of a small decked vessel that houses the rudder controls...
and 125 horsepower (93 kW) engines built for speed.
Other early builders of varnished-wood runabouts include Chris-Craft and Gar Wood, but by the late 1940s Gar Wood had stopped producing boats and Chris-Craft was moving to the more modern materials of plastic and fibreglass.
The runabouts built by Italian builder Carlo Riva in the late 1950s and the 1960s are considered by many to be premier European examples of the type.
Riva’s history dates back to 1842, when Pietro Riva began building boats at Sarnico, a small northern Italian town on the shores of Lago d’Iseo. By the 1930s the business was managed by Pietro’s grandson, Serafino, and the company had become a leading manufacturer of small racing boats, many of which he raced himself. At the same time it began building pleasure boats. In the 1950s Serafino’s son Carlo transformed the business, and in due course the Riva brand became a worldwide legend sought out by screen stars, royalty and businessmen alike. Famous customers included Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Peter Sellers and many more besides. A succession of owners have owned the company since Carlo Riva sold it in the early 1970s, and today the firm is owned by the Ferretti Group. The most famous Riva of all time was the Carlo Riva design called the Aquarama
Riva Aquarama
The Riva Aquarama was a speedboat model built by Italian yachtbuilder Riva. Production ran for over three decades from Aquarama's introduction in 1962 until 1996. Carlo Riva launched the Aquarama runabout series in 1962. The Aquarama's hull was based on the Riva Tritone – an earlier model...
Special.
After selling the Riva yard, Carlo Riva was part of the creation of the "Monte Carlo Offshorer" brand. Developed together with Bob Hopps and Cal Connell, the Monte Carlo Offshorer 27 (70s), 30 (80s) and 32 (early 90s) was the first production runabout with a "stepped" hull to improve ride and stability. The boats were built by RAM - the maintenance part of the former Riva company, still owned by the Riva family.
Construction and materials
The use of aluminium in small boat construction came soon after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
because of availability of aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
materials as war surplus. Fiberglass was then introduced as another way to reduce the maintenance, cost and weight of watercraft
Watercraft
A watercraft is a vessel or craft designed to move across or through water. The name is derived from the term "craft" which was used to describe all types of water going vessels...
. Given the cost benefits and personal enjoyment of boat building, do-it-yourself ′Kit Boats′ were also introduced using plywood material. In 1955, Chris-Craft created The Plywood Boat Division which marketed both Kit and pre-built plywood craft.
By 1960, wooden powerboats had become rare since most new vessels used fiberglass or other lightweight materials. In addition, the art of boat-building in wood has been largely lost since it requires far greater individual skill. Nonetheless there remain a few notable exceptions, perhaps most famously the Hacker Boat Company, the oldest motor-boat builder in the world which continues to produce magnificent mahogany boats on the shores of Lake George, New York
Lake George (New York)
Lake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a long, narrow oligotrophic lake draining northwards into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River Drainage basin located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York, U.S.A.. It lies within the upper region of the...
. Other wooden boat-builders include Graf, J-Craft and Boesch. Fiber reinforced plastic materials are now used extensively in construction of small runabout boats to reduce weight and maximize speed when racing
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
powerboats.
Propulsion
Runabouts can be powered by inboard engines, outboards, jet drives, or inboard-outboard (I/O) drives. Engines can be gasoline or diesel systems.Inboards have the engine block permanently mounted within the hull of the boat, with a drive shaft and a propeller to drive the craft underneath the hull, and a separate rudder to steer the craft. To give the engine block the proper angle a plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
is typically used.
Outboards are packaged drive units, containing the engine block, linkage gears, and the propeller within a single unit. Outboard drives are mounted to the transom and are mechanically turned to the left or right to steer the craft, either directly with a tiller, or through a remote steering system leading to a steering wheel mounted on the boat's console. Outboard drive units are typically designed to act as both propulsion and rudder.
Jet Drives are drive units have a propeller enclosed in a pump-jet
Pump-jet
A pump-jet, hydrojet, or water jet, is a marine system that creates a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller with nozzle, or a centrifugal pump and nozzle...
that draws water from underneath of the hull and expels it through a swiveling nozzle in the stern. They are highly maneuverable and tolerant of shallow water, but need larger engines and use more fuel than the other alternatives.
Inboard-Outboard drives are a hybrid, with an engine block mounted within the hull, but linked to a lower drive unit mounted to the transom containing the propeller which is pivoted for steering the craft, similar to an outboard motor. An outdrive also serves as a rudder.