Motorboat

A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats".

An inboard-outboard contains a hybrid of an inboard and an outboard, where the internal combustion engine is installed inside the boat, and the gearbox and propeller are outside.

[3][4] The first public display took place on the Waldsee in Cannstatt, today a suburb of Stuttgart, at the end of that year.

[7] Another early pioneer was Mr. J. D. Roots, who in 1891 fitted a launch with an internal combustion engine and operated a ferry service between Richmond and Wandsworth along the River Thames during the seasons of 1891 and 1892.

Working in the garden of their home in Olton, Warwickshire, they designed and built a river flat-bottomed launch with an advanced high-revving engine that drove via a stern paddle wheel in 1893.

The engines had two cylinders and the explosive charge of petroleum and air was ignited by compression into a heated platinum tube.

The petrol was fed by air pressure to a large surface carburettor and also an auxiliary tank which supplied the burners for heating the ignition tubes.

Motor Boat & Yachting was the first magazine to address technical developments in the field and was brought out by Temple Press, London from 1904.

Large manufacturing companies, including Napier & Son and Thornycroft began producing motorboats.

[6] She set the world's first water speed record when she achieved 19.3 mph (31.1 km/h) in a 40-foot (12 m) steel-hulled, 75-horsepower Napier speedboat fitted with a three-blade propeller.

"[11][12][13] Levitt was then commanded to the Royal yacht of King Edward VII where he congratulated her on her pluck and skill, and they discussed the performance of the motorboat and its potential for British government despatch work.

The acknowledged genius of motor boat design in America was the naval architect John L. Hacker.

In 1911, Hacker designed the Kitty Hawk, the first successful step hydroplane which exceeded the then-unthinkable speed of 50 mph (80 km/h) and was at that time the fastest boat in the world.

These vary by such considerations as size, whether they have a deck, cabin, head, is sail, helm position, and additional seating.