jon boat, scow, pram, garvey, bateau

[SScoville]

What are the differences between these boats? Are the terms used interchangeably?

[Peerie Maa]

What are the differences between these boats? Are the terms used interchangeably?

No all different. Pram is a Scandinavian work boat type, clencher built with round bilges and a ram or plank keel and bow transom. Scow derives from the English swim headed Thames Barge or lighter, single chine, where both the bow and stern are formed by sloping the bottom up to deck level. A garvey is like a scow but with the bow coming up in a tighter radius than the scow, and a transom stern, now carrying outboards.
I'll leave other forumites to describe the other two.

[Thorne]

Many.

Sometimes.

I have a question for you: "Why ask?"

Almost any basic book on traditional boats will at least partially answer this question for you. Chapelle's _American Small Sailing Craft_ would do, but a quick Internet search is cheaper...

Since there is no "overseeing body" of bureaucrats to define these terms, they will always be fuzzy and differ from place to place -- see the recent threads on "Skiff"...

[boylesboats]

In what usage that you're going to do?
All are basically square ended at both bow and transom, flat bottomed..
It just some fancy words as style designs that are used...

punt, pram are small dinghy like boat.. Pram is also a baby carriage

scow is early type of jonboats

garvey is somewhat is larger, decked boat, some will have semi V-bottom..

bateau is a French word for boats, any boats

NOUN:
Nautical pl. ba·teaux (-tz) KEY
Canada & New England A long, light, flatbottom boat with a sharply pointed bow and stern.
South Atlantic & Gulf States A small, light, flatbottom rowboat.

Useage are not much of interchangeably..

This is best that I could do for ya... just for now

[James McMullen]

Let's see if I remember this correctly. . .


A scow is used for hauling garbage http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DF1439F932A35756C0A9619482 60

A pram is used for hauling yachtsmen to the Clubhouse.

A bateau is used for swamp fishin'

A garvey is used for duck shootin'

And a Jonboat is used for drowning drunk rednecks.

[boylesboats]

LOL... Listen to you James McMullen :D....

[SScoville]

I have a question for you: "Why ask?"


1. I'm planing to build what I'm told is a cruiser on a garvey hull. I had never heard this term until I decided to build one. 2. I've seen postings on this forum of various of these boats and many of them look basically the same to me - boat building and study is new to me. Internet searches have not provided much clarity, as some of the replies on the thread indicate.

Where I live, coastal S.C., many people use the term "jon boat" as generic for any small boat, although now it's usually small aluminum boats. I always thought of bateau to mean a flat bottomed "pram" bowed boat that would be propelled by pole to collect oysters and hunt ducks. The local shad fishermen and shrimpers, however, call a certain boat used here for shad fishing, a bateau. It has a slight v in the hull that flattens out towards the stern, has low gunnels for hauling nets, and a very wide beam. Crabbers use them too. And to them, this, and only this, is a bateau.

It's interesting to me that although "bateau" literally means "boat," everywhere seems to have their own version of it.

[dredbob]

Names for various types of boats are sometimes very local, and it is not uncommon for the same boat to be called different names in different times and places.

If you want to be educated on this, the best you can do is read a lot of books and magazines, old and new, until you get a feel for it.

The best place to start is with H I Chapelle's _American Small Sailing Craft_, and John Gardner's _The Dory Book_. Then get the other Gardner books such as _Building Classic Small Craft_, etc. Look for older books by the likes of WP Stephens, HC Folkard, Harry Sucher, and the list goes on and on.

Bob

[johnw]

Garveys typically have a flat bottom and a curve to the bottom that comes right up to the deck at the bow, and a transom stern. John boats, punts and prams all have transom bows and sterns, at least the way most people use the term. Nautical terms are slippery when it comes to consistent meanings.

Here you go:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RzbsxR5Nj4gC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=sailing+chappelle+garvey&source=web&ots=hjtEMhzkTZ&sig=T-2Gs54xUxy4NkV8QzU1_AqHMWM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

The picture is on page 58.

[keyhavenpotterer]

Here's what a UK Scow looks like, part of a fleet of 44 at the 2008 UK Nationals. I am in 365, the orange sail. Guess if 430 won the race and the regatta.

http://www.johnclaridgeboats.com/SCOW%20NATIONALS%202008/P7210084.JPG

Brian

[johnw]

And here's an American scow, for comparison. This one's a Class A.

Words are slippery things, aren't they?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/A-Scow.jpg

[johnw]

Oh, and here's a vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ex2dFFhpCw&feature=related

[Peerie Maa]

I could never understand how those little apple cheeked dingys came to be called scows.

[keyhavenpotterer]

Here goes. If you Google Earth Hurst Castle, you will hopefully find a castle from Henry VIII's period. It be said that the Dutch engineers who came over to build the castle brought the small boats with them to get out and back, via Keyhaven River. "Scow" being a Dutch word, and the boats being from Tudor times, we must have been first!

Brian