The word boat designates all the boats built by man, capable of navigating on streams and serving generally as means of locomotion and as transportation of goods or persons. Some are also conceived for the war or for the maritime security and the fishing.

Boats did not stop evolving throughout History, from the first primitive rafts -10, 000 years ago (Neolithic time)- that were made out of logs, to the aircraft carriers and fancy pleasure boats, by way of frigates and other galleons that served for the exploration of seas and oceans during the Renaissance.

Whatever the shape and their size, we always find certain constituent elements common to all boats. The ballcock –or hull- is an essential element for it assures the buoyancy of the boat, thanks to a perfect waterproofness. Every boat also possesses a system of propulsion as well as a system of navigation. The system of propulsion may vary according to the boat: helixes, sails, paddles, engines, and so on.

The system of navigation -or system of steering- is often intimately connected to the system of propulsion. Indeed, we do not govern in the same way a sailboat and a motorboat. Nevertheless, we often find a rudder on boats to steer manually boats, even those power-driven.

The trimaran, a boat with 3 hulls, is used a lot for yacht races. The biggest never built (Banque Populaire V) is 40 meters long and weigh 23 tons. Its height is astonishing: 55 meters! We expect from this boat that it beats speed records on very long races (the very famous Trophy Jules-Verne in November, 2009), in the course of which it will not pass below 35 knots of speed!

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