Raft

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Raft (disambiguation).

Traditional raft, from 1884 edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Children successfully test their raft, in Brixham harbour, south Devon, England. The raft is made from wooden poles, rope and blue barrels.

A raft is any flat floating structure for travel over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Instead, rafts are kept afloat using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels, or inflated air chambers. Traditional or primitive rafts are constructed of wood or reeds. Modern rafts may also use pontoons, drums, or extruded polystyrene blocks. Inflatable rafts use durable, multi-layered rubberized fabrics. Depending on its use and size, it may have a superstructure, masts, or rudders.

Timber rafting is used by the logging industry for the transportation of logs, by tying them together into rafts, and drifting or pulling them down a river. This method was very common up until the middle of the 20th century but is now used only rarely.

The type of raft used for recreational rafting is almost exclusively an inflatable boat, manufactured of flexible materials for use on whitewater.