Human-powered watercraft

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Sweep-oar rowing a coxed pair
Above: sweep-oar rowing a coxed pair
Below: an amphibious bicycle
An amphibious bicycle

Human-powered watercraft are watercraft propelled by human power.

The three main methods of collecting human power are directly from the hands or feet, through the hands with oars, paddles, or poles, or through the feet with pedals and a crank or treadle.[1]

While most human-powered watercraft use buoyancy to maintain their position relative to the surface of the water, a few, such as human-powered hydrofoils and human-powered submarines, use hydrofoils, either alone or in addition to buoyancy.

Oared craft

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Main article: Watercraft rowing

Oars are held at one end, have a blade on the other end, and pivot in between in oarlocks.

Oared craft include:

A racing scull

Using oars in pairs, with one hand on each oar, is two-oar sculling. The oars may also be called sculls.[2]

Two-oared sculled craft include:

Rowing a trainera

Using oars individually, with both hands on a single oar, is sweep or sweep-oar rowing.[2] In this case the rowers are usually paired so that there is an oar on each side of the boat.

Sweep-oared craft include:

Sculling sampans

Moving a single stern-mounted oar from side to side, while changing the angle of the blade so as to generate forward thrust on both strokes, is single-oar sculling.[3]

Single-oar sculled craft include:

Paddled craft

A canoe
A kayak
A canoe (upper) and a kayak (lower)

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Main article: Watercraft paddling

A paddle, with a blade on one or both ends, is held with both hands.

Paddled craft include:

Pedaled craft

A pedalo
220px
A pedalo (upper) and a hydrocycle (lower)

Pedals are attached to a crank and propelled in circles, or to a treadle and reciprocated,[citation needed] with the feet. The collected power is then transferred to the water with a paddle wheel, flippers,[4][5][6] or to the air or water with a propeller.

Pedaled craft include:

Poled craft

A pole is held with both hands and used to push against the bottom.

Poled craft include:

Other types

File:Veerpontje.jpg
Hand-operated cable ferry

Other types of human-powered watercraft include:

Gallery

  • Paddleboard-race.jpg

    Hand paddling surfboards

  • Huck-and-jim-on-raft.jpg

    Polling a raft

  • Sculling a gondola

  • Paddling an umiak

  • Decavitator, the world's fastest human-powered watercraft, is a pedal-powered hydrofoil

  • Starting an AquaSkipper hydrofoil

See also

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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