Surfboat
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A surfboat is an oar-driven boat designed to go out in heavy surf or severe waves. It is often used in lifesaving or rescue missions where these need to be launched from a beach. The boat building traditions of several countries produced the same basic design when faced with the same problem, that of passing through the broken water of surf. Turning a broad stern towards steep waves, as those of surf are causes the boat to broach to (turn parallel to the wave front). This swamps the boat and means disaster. Therefore, surf boats have a pointed stern and usually a fairly marked sheer.
Surf boat rowing is very popular in Australia and New Zealand and to a lesser extent South Africa. Usually associated with Surf Life Saving clubs surf boat crews are trained in life saving skills as well as learning to be competent oarsman. The Australian form of the sport attracts wide media coverage and is often featured on mainstream sporting shows in the summer months. Surf boats are 4 oared vessels with pointed bow and sterns. The boat is steered by a sweep who stands in the bow and uses an oar like rudder to control the boat. During competition surf crews start on the beach and row through the surf to then proceed to a certain number of turning points (often referred to as the can). Crews then race back to the beach. As the boat nears the beach oars are raised and the boat is literally surfed a shore. Surf boat races are conducted on a weekly basis through out the Australian summer. Hundreds of boat crews take part.
Until the 1950s, the most widely-known surfboats were those of Accra, Ghana. Until a port was built, commercial cargoes were landed through the surf by very skillful boatmen with strong arms and equally strong nerve.
The best-known exception to this double-ended nature of surf boats, is the coble of north-eastern England. Here, the problem was resolved by beaching stern first. The run (the after part of the bottom) was broad, flat and straight so that once the boat had beached, it remained upright. However beaching the boat was a special skill which involved unshipping the rudder at the right moment. Because they do not fit the usual double-ended pattern, cobles are not normally called surf boats.
In Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn Island the surf boats are known as longboats.
