Watercraft

A watercraft or waterborne vessel is any vehicle designed for travel across or through water bodies, such as a boat, ship, hovercraft, submersible or submarine.

Watercraft can be grouped into surface vessels, which include ships, yachts, boats, hydroplanes, wingships, unmanned surface vehicles, sailboards and human-powered craft such as rafts, canoes, kayaks and paddleboards;[3] underwater vessels, which include submarines, submersibles, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), wet subs and diver propulsion vehicles; and amphibious vehicles, which include hovercraft, car boats, amphibious ATVs and seaplanes.

The design of watercraft requires a tradeoff among internal capacity (tonnage), speed and seaworthiness.

For instance, early steamships often set sails to work alongside the engine power.

In a modern yacht, motor-sailing – travelling under the power of both sails and engine – is a common method of making progress, if only in and out of harbour.