What is a Hull?

The hull is the basic structure of a boat not including the masts (if any), rigging, above board constructions or attachments of any kind. Typically, it is curved along the bottom, angular toward the bow (front) and somewhat squared at the stern (rear). There are flat-bottom boats and different bow and stern shapes but most hulls are especially designed with hydrodynamic considerations as described above. No matter which hull design is used, all watercraft create a bow wave as they push through the water. At slow speeds, this is a relative non-factor but at greater speeds, the bow wave becomes larger and higher and the boats will try climbing it. Some boats are not built to ride a bow wave and will remain deep in the trough of their own waves, while others are purposely designed to ride up the bow wave and move atop it while other hulls will only partially rise up. Hence, there are three basic hull designs. The first kind is called a displacement-hull. Any boat of this design pushes ...  more