Definitions: Skiff, Dinghy and Tender in Recreational Boating

[Bongo Boy]

I've been rummaging around the world of small boats for maybe 18 months now, and have never looked up definitions of these terms. I have tried to distinguish any outstanding features common to each name, and have found none. So today, I started looking online for definitions that would help me understand the differences. Still no closer, and in fact, may be further from my goal.

So, while I think I safely eliminated 'pram' from my initial list due to one single defining hull design feature that can clearly set one apart from any other boat, under dinghy I got "usually from 6 to 20 feet in length". Okay, this isn't helping much!

Under 'skiff' I got the following:

"can refer to high performance sailing dinghy"
"usually a sea-going fishing boat" (in America), and
"a flat-bottomed open boat"

So, one of the first examples I dig out is the Melonseed Skiff. Never a dinghy by design as far as I know, not a fishing boat, and not open nor flat-bottomed (I guess it's really close enough to flat-bottomed, though?).

Now, I'm okay with the definitions that were applied to working boats--and the definition of a dinghy as a sort of tender that's towed, and a tender as any boat whatsoever routinely chosen to tend to another boat, and maybe a skiff as a boat, of any kind, designed and used to haul in fish and be beached rather than moored. I'm choosing especially-loose constraints and saying I'd be able to grasp that such definitions are useful if not precise.

But, do you see a fair consistency in the use of these terms for small goof boats (pleasure craft), and I'm just not seeing the subtle distinction--OR, are the terms applied pretty much as folks see fit to elicit the most romance? I really can't tell with my non-existent experience.

[Chip-skiff]

There's quite a bit of overlap in the application of the terms. My understanding is as follows:

Skiff: a lightly-built craft of relatively narrow beam with a flat bottom and often a chined hull and a daggerboard or unballasted centerboard, with a simple rig, often a single sail, intended for rowing and/or daysailing, originally designed for shallow-water pursuits such as crabbing, oystering, etc.

Dinghy: A small sailing craft of virtually any construction, including some very sophisticated racing boats, intended for daysailing. To my mind, a dinghy has a centerboard or daggerboard rather than a fixed keel and a broader beam than a skiff.

Tender: any craft intended to serve as a link between a larger craft or ship and other large crafts, or the shore. Tender might refer to anything from a wee pram up to a multi-oar gig or crewed oar/sail boat, depending on the size of the ship it serves. That is, it's a functional designation.

[Bruce Hooke]

I would mostly agree with what Chip-skiff said except that at least in Maine both "skiff" and "dinghy" are also often used for craft that are not intended to be sailed, just rowed (or these days powered with a small outboard motor). In Maine "dinghy" is also commonly used for pretty much any small boat designed to be used as a tender, linking a larger boat to the land or to other boats, the key distinction being that a dinghy is rarely larger than about 12 feet long, while, as Chip-skiff said, "tender" can mean a good-size boat, so long as it is serving an even larger boat. I think I've even heard the term "tender" used to refer to something in the range of 50 feet long used to deliver supplies to a larger boat, but I could be misremembering on that point.

Of the three terms, only skiff implies anything about the hull shape or construction method.

[purri]

Skiff: a fully decked small sailing craft incorporating air as floatation.

Dinghy: A capable enclosed waters small sailing or rowing craft with open interior.

Tender: self descriptor but usually an undersize dinghy; auxiliary to a larger vessel and with minimal ability to navigate enclosed waters much less carry passengers to the parent vessel with a modicum of safety.

[Bongo Boy]

Keep 'em coming folks, and thanks. You're helping out a person who never saw a human rowing a boat in 'real life' until about 4 years ago when I drove through Cambridge, MA, I think. And no, I'm not kidding...I grew up in Michigan, but seldom got out on the water and never saw a rowboat, being rowed. I could go on about what I don't know, but none of us has that kind of time.

[Chip-skiff]

For the record, there are lightning-fast Aussie raceboats that are known as 18-ft. skiffs, that have rather little in common with crabbing skiffs and other light working craft. And there are quite a few skiff designs that have no decks or watertight compartments. Such as this "Chesapeake Crab Skiff" on the Doug Hylan website:

http://www.dhylanboats.com/images/gallery/westport_canon1.jpg

[Hunky Dory]

I think you will get different opinions in different parts of the world or even different parts of the country. I think the photo that Chip posts is what most people in new england consider a skiff. Weather rigged for sail rowing or outboard, A simple flatbottom open boat. Actually a small percentage of skiffs are rigged for sail around here and most are used for tenders or shellfishing as they are easily beached.

[Thorne]

OR, are the terms applied pretty much as folks see fit to elicit the most romance?

Yes. Question sorted.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Just to add to the fun, my father learned to sail in the West Country and so he always referred to the tender as "the punt".

[htom]

I think of skiffs as flat-bottomed with an aft transom and a pointy bow, a beautiful example above.

Tenders are small craft based on shore that visit boats and return to the shore.

Dinghys are small craft based on boats that visit the shore or other boats and return to their boat.

[rbgarr]

I like htom's last two distinctions!

[David Cockey]

Many of the boat types traditionally referred to as "skiff" have round bottoms including St Lawrence River skiffs and several varieties of inshore fishing boats in Newfoundland. Sea Bright skiffs from New Jersey are round bottom boats with a plank keel. "Aak to Zumbra, a Dictionary of the World's Watercraft" defines 14 uses of the term "skiff", and then mentions several others. "Skiff" has also been used to describe some more utilitarian outboard and small inboard boats (in contrast to "runabout"). And then there are the Jersey Speed Skiffs which are inboard, round bottom race boats which have nothing in common with a flat bottom rowboat.

[David Cockey]

Dinghy has two widespread uses:
1) A small boat used for transportation between the shore and a larger boat.
2) A smaller, open sailboat used for racing and pleasure.

"Aak to Zumbra" has several other uses which are relatively small boats, 6 m / 20 ft or less in length. One of these is a "slender craft that served as a water-taxi in Bombay (Mumbai) and along the Malabar Coast." I suspect this may be the origin of the term.

[David Cockey]

"Tender" appears to generally used for a smaller boat which "attends" another, generally transporting people or goods to and from the larger vessel. Boats are generally defined as a "tender" based on usage, not design. However, when a particular design type becomes associated with a particular use then the name of the use frequently is used to describe the design type.

[Ian McColgin]

Dinghy is yet another wonderful example of the English language's ability to absorb words. If I recall rightly, dinghy is an anglization of a Bengali word for small boat.

[Peerie Maa]

Just to add to the fun, my father learned to sail in the West Country and so he always referred to the tender as "the punt".

Correct, exept in Essex where a smacks punt is called a skiff.

From my common usage a skiff is lightly built for ease of rowing. A dinghy is an open pleasure boat, usually wider in proportion than a skiff, and a tender is, as Chip-skiff said a function, not a description, exept that it has to have good carrying capacity, which the other two do not.

[Peerie Maa]

I like htom's last two distinctions!

From a British point of view htom is exactly wrong on all three points;)

[Bruce Hooke]

Skiff: a fully decked small sailing craft incorporating air as floatation.

Dinghy: A capable enclosed waters small sailing or rowing craft with open interior.

Tender: self descriptor but usually an undersize dinghy; auxiliary to a larger vessel and with minimal ability to navigate enclosed waters much less carry passengers to the parent vessel with a modicum of safety.

These definitions pretty clearly demonstrate that use of these terms varies quite a bit by region! I've seen a lot of boats referred to as "skiffs" in this part of the world and they are almost never decked and almost never use air for flotation, at least to the best of my recollection. I've seen lots of "dinghies" that I would not be so inclined to call "capable" since the term is often applied around here to some of the least seaworthy craft in common use, and I also think I have heard the term "tender" applied to pretty large craft used to move goods from ship to shore or the other way! (see the second photo on this page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrignafoy/page8/ )

[David Cockey]

Anyone interested in the names of boat types should have a copy of "Aak to Zumbra, a Dictionary of the World's Watercraft" which was published in 2000 by The Mariners' Museum. It has almost 700 pages describing the boat types associated with over 5600 names, and many of the names describe multiple usages. Most are "working watercraft built by local craftsman". "Aak to Zumbra" is largely the work of the late Muriel Parry who was a retired geographer and who between 1974 and 1995 compiled over 19,000 terms describing watercraft.

"Aak to Zumbra" was still available from The Mariners' Museum store for $49.95 http://www.marinersmuseum.org/content/aak-zumbra-dictionary-worlds-watercraft-published-mariners-museum-foreword-basil-greenhill
If you want to look elsewhere it is 9780917376467 - ISBN-10: 0917376463 Other booksellers list it as no longer available new or want a higher price for a new copy.

Chatham published it in the UK in 2003 as "A Dictionary of the World's Watercraft, Aak to Zumbra" ISBN: 9781861761828. The Chatham website listing takes you to http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=2203 where it's available for 45 pounds.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Here is the Queen Mary with her tender, which she shared with the Queen Elizabeth; they both inherited this tender from the Titanic and the Olympic and, since she was a good tender, she lasted in service from the first voyage of the Titanic, in 1911, until the Queens retired in 1967. 56 years is an exceptional length of service for any merchant ship.


http://www.nomadicpreservationsociety.co.uk/images/gallery/8/Nomadic%20Queen%20Mary.jpg



and here is the same tender today, in dry dock in Belfast, where she was built, undergoing restoration, ready for her hundredth birthday party:


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3799066966_fd541c761e.jpg


And here is the Bristol pilot skiff "Kindly Light", which is of a similar age and is also still with us, towing her punt into position to transfer the pilot aboard the waiting ship:

http://www.researchthepast.com/images/Kindly%20Light,%20pilot%20cutter.JPG

[htom]

From a British point of view htom is exactly wrong on all three points;)

Often opinionated, never in doubt. Correctness, variable probability.

[Thorne]

Hey, when we done with this one, let's define "dory" -- then we can decide how many angels can dance on the head of a belaying pin! Sound like fun?

[Peerie Maa]

Often opinionated, never in doubt. Correctness, variable probability.

Two nations separated by a common language.

http://www.ryankearleyboatbuilder.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Skiff-to-post3.jpg
http://www.catalibi.fr/up/Projects-presentation/Dinghy/RS-500%20Dinghy.jpg

Dinghys can be used as tenders, and tenders are often towed by the yacht, stowed on deck, or left on the mooring.

[Steve Paskey]

These definitions pretty clearly demonstrate that use of these terms varies quite a bit by region! I've seen a lot of boats referred to as "skiffs" in this part of the world and they are almost never decked and almost never use air for flotation, at least to the best of my recollection. I've seen lots of "dinghies" that I would not be so inclined to call "capable" since the term is often applied around here to some of the least seaworthy craft in common use...

Yup. Consider, for instance, the tender for Raw Faith, a homebuilt 118-foot schooner. Raw Faith's tender is a conventional outboard-powered aluminum pontoon boat, designed for use on lakes in good weather. George McKay (RF's owner and builder) insists on calling the pontoon boat a "skiff" ... perhaps to gloss over the fact that the boat is unsuited for the use he's making of it, which includes being towed behind RF as she sails from one port to the next.

[redbopeep]

Tender--

I thought in particular that a yacht's tender had to be able to "tend" to the yacht. And, by tending, I did not think of just bringing people and supplies to and from a yacht which almost any dinghy can do but rather though of being capable of pushing the boat into a dock space or being capable of use for towing while in harbor. Sort of like the yacht's own private little tug. If the dinghy doesn't have the ability to "tend" the yacht by performing such duty, it is simply the yacht's "dinghy" in my book. I have recently fallen into the habit of referring to our dingy and our canoe as tenders to the boat. However, they are not really since neither can actually "tend" our yacht in harbor.

[Bruce Hooke]

Tender--

I thought in particular that a yacht's tender had to be able to "tend" to the yacht. And, by tending, I did not think of just bringing people and supplies to and from a yacht which almost any dinghy can do but rather though of being capable of pushing the boat into a dock space or being capable of use for towing while in harbor. Sort of like the yacht's own private little tug. If the dinghy doesn't have the ability to "tend" the yacht by performing such duty, it is simply the yacht's "dinghy" in my book. I have recently fallen into the habit of referring to our dingy and our canoe as tenders to the boat. However, they are not really since neither can actually "tend" our yacht in harbor.

That does make some sense on the other hand this is the first time I've heard that explanation. Certainly, these days, it is the rare recreational sailor who ever uses a smaller boat to push or pull his boat around the harbor!

I have not really heard the term "tender" used much at all when it comes to recreational boats. "Dinghy" seems to be much more common amongst the folks I've been around.

[redbopeep]

I've seen quite a few yachts being tended recently. When the engine isn't working, they side-tie the inflatable dinghy to the boat and use it to propel the boat. You've not seen this? If a yacht doesn't have a working engine, it really is common. A lot of low income folks living on sailboats in San Diego bay do it all the time. The schooner Martha must be tended into her spot in the small Port Townsend harbor. Her prop shaft was an after-thought and angles off one side or the other of the stern (no shaft log through the deadwood on that boat) and I guess she would be doing one direction circles at slow speed without her tender.

Well, we don't really have a "tender" capable of moving our yacht. If we want one, someday we'll break down and buy an outboard or just get a smaller yacht that can be tended by oar.

[Bongo Boy]

I think I'm okay now, at least for slinging these terms around when I'm in the company of folks who know nothing at all about boats. As an example, so far in my life the only time I've needed to use the term 'schooner' was when ordering a beer at the old Stick & Stein in El Segundo. So, what is the proper term for the kind of boat they use to serve sushi, and to purposely embarass you when you've ordered too much? Like that ever happens.

[mommicked]

I'm with Htom on all three. I think this is modern US usage. I'll stir the pot further to the distinction that a skiff can be propelled by motor sail or rowing, but that there are a lot of small boats that I refuse to call a skiff that others would. A boat with round or lapstrake gunnels is never called a skiff here, but a rowboat. To me, Chipskiff's boat is about the only type of boat we'd call a skiff here, but we're a little off anyhow!

Peerie Maa's boats (here) would be referred to as a rowboat and a small sailboat, period.

[Ian McColgin]

I disagree with htom to the extent that:

Tenders are tenders whether they live ashore or go about with the boat and they tend the vessel, which may main boat to shore or boat to boat, or may mean servicing the main boat, as the tenders to various America’s Cup contenders; and

Dinghy is a generic term for a small usually open or barely decked boat, traditionally oar or sail but now outboards are ubiquitous, normally fit to carry less than 6 and often but 3 adults, and can be used as a tender, as a performance sail boat, cartopper, etc etc.

Prams, by the way, have a bow transom and if you bother with the etymology you’ll see it has no shared root with the prams in which babies are wheeled.

Unlike some rigging terms like catboat, sloop, schooner etc which are fairly unambiguous, small boats whether tenders, dinghies, skiffs, etc are more imprecise categories. On the other hand, dory is a fairly clear term for a boat with a narrow flat bottom with garboard and hull planks rising up from that bottom. There have been some boats noted on this Forum that were called dories by the builder but are not.

[Lew Barrett]

Andrew, the Nomadic is spectacular. I particularly like the details given her to align her with the vessels she tended. She represents a spectacular sense of design for purpose in something extraordinarily elegant. The angles of the stacks align perfectly, her shear line is in proportion; the paint scheme; everything makes her look just like a little liner. Of course, that's really what she is, with "little" being quite relative.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Absolutely, Lew.

There are a few photos of internal details here:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/nomadic_update.html

I was in charge of ordering and building building a ship at Harland and Wolff in 1991-4 and I had the pleasure of looking over their old detail books - in the great days of shipbuilding every yard, including the big yacht builders, maintained their own "detail books" showing their standard way of making every part of a ship, or indeed a yacht. This meant that a "house style" was carried through. You can see this in Nomadic - and, of course, White Star wanted their "brand" (as they woukd not have called it) to be evident from the moment passengers boarded the tender, and because the Queens were built by Cunard White Star after the British Government forced the two to merge as a condition of financing the Queen Mary, she also carried some White Star detailing although she was built at John Brown's.

I'm afraid my ship wasn't such a beauty. Maybe only a parent could love her:

http://elbe.el.ohost.de/700x300_erradale_s01_2003_01.jpg

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

skiff
http://www.tradboatrally.com/gallery05w2l/slides/Skiff.jpg

http://www.tradboatrally.com/gallery05w2l/slides/Robert.html <<<< and a slightly differnt approach.

Dinghy? (http://www.tradboatrally.com/gallery05w2l/slides/Thames%20A-Rater.html)

[Canoeyawl]

There are a couple of overlooked skiffs; the Seine Skiff, and the Speed Skiff

Seine Skiff
http://timnolanmarinedesign.com/uploads/images/seine_skiff.jpg

Speed Skiff

http://www.vintageraceboatshop.com/images/OurVintageBoats/MyPrecious/DSC_0004%20(4).JPG

[Vince Brennan]

http://elbe.el.ohost.de/700x300_erradale_s01_2003_01.jpg

Not exactly a plethora of oarlocks on THAT one, eigh?

(Let me guess: With that much sail area [due to being unladen] the tug was needed just "to keep to course"?)

Of COURSE we can love her... she was designed for a purpose and carried out same to her specs? Then she's loveable.

NOT pretty... Just "loveable".

[gilberj]

I'd say Ian's definitions pretty much agree with mine.
A dinghy is a small open boat, it may be a sailing dinghy or a rowing dinghy or combine the two.....
A skiff is nearly always a flat bottom boat to me but a light aluminum outboard powered boat is usually a skiff as well, despite having rounded bilges.......
A tender attends....a bigger vessel, it might also be a skiff or a dinghy, perhaps even both. A pram has a transom at both ends, but not usually with a flat bottom, flat bottom prams are usually punts. What are dink.s??

[redbopeep]

What are dink.s??

A name that yachties call a skiff, pram, punt, tender, dinghy...because they like to say "dink" and don't know the difference between said skiff, dinghy, tender. :)

[Ian McColgin]

Dink is just short for dinghy.

If one bought an inflatable dinghy from Henshaw, one has a TinkDink.

[odinsman]

I'd rather have to disagree with any of these boats never being full keel. There are fixed keel dinghies. There are fixed keel tenders. I can't say about skiffs, but I am willing to bet never being fixed keel is not one of the criteria.
There's quite a bit of overlap in the application of the terms. My understanding is as follows:

Skiff: a lightly-built craft of relatively narrow beam with a flat bottom and often a chined hull and a daggerboard or unballasted centerboard, with a simple rig, often a single sail, intended for rowing and/or daysailing, originally designed for shallow-water pursuits such as crabbing, oystering, etc.

Dinghy: A small sailing craft of virtually any construction, including some very sophisticated racing boats, intended for daysailing. To my mind, a dinghy has a centerboard or daggerboard rather than a fixed keel and a broader beam than a skiff.

Tender: any craft intended to serve as a link between a larger craft or ship and other large crafts, or the shore. Tender might refer to anything from a wee pram up to a multi-oar gig or crewed oar/sail boat, depending on the size of the ship it serves. That is, it's a functional designation.

[nedL]

I wouldn't count on being able to come up with any consistant definition for these terms. They most likely all have quite specific regional meanings. In New Jersey the term "skiff" has been used for at least 150 years to denote a lapstake planked, soft chine, transomed stern, locally built boat.

This is most definately a Jersey sea skiff. ---47ft - built in keyport N.J.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a2d704b3127ccef1676682374000000030O02Bbs3DVuzZA9 vPhI/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00200375837020120925201550277.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a2d704b3127ccef1660f6bd67900000030O02Bbs3DVuzZA9 vPhI/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00200375837020120925201536265.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
and this (as already point out) is a Jersey speed skiff

http://jerseyspeedskiffs.com/iB_html/uploads/post-2-83641-thunder_08214.jpg

[Full Tilt]

Many of the boat types traditionally referred to as "skiff" have round bottoms including St Lawrence River skiffs and several varieties of inshore fishing boats in Newfoundland. Sea Bright skiffs from New Jersey are round bottom boats with a plank keel. "Aak to Zumbra, a Dictionary of the World's Watercraft" defines 14 uses of the term "skiff", and then mentions several others. "Skiff" has also been used to describe some more utilitarian outboard and small inboard boats (in contrast to "runabout"). And then there are the Jersey Speed Skiffs which are inboard, round bottom race boats which have nothing in common with a flat bottom rowboat.
______________________ ______________________________________________

The St. Lawrence skiff is more of a plank keel than a timber on edge. The design allows for the vessel to sit upright, an important feature for a fishing guide boat.
Most of the boats people here are describing as "skiffs" would have that same ability.
"Skiff" could even be an onomonopia based on the sound they make when pulled up on a beach.

Mike

[Ben Fuller]

The author of "Aak to Zumbra, a Dictionary of the World's Watercraft" was a geographer. She collected terms from all over the world. So you will get many definitions for the same term. You always need to know the context, so much so that I don't much bother trying to nail down terms any more without asking where and when. Skiff terms tend to have lightness in common. Dingy had derivation in English from a Indian word. The racing dingies that we now sail go back to the small tender: if you look at what are called dingies in England in the 20s and 30s, they are open, they can be sailed, and they can be rowed. Tenders can be quite large.