Motorboat

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A motorboat is a vessel propelled by an internal combustion engine or electric motor driving a jet pump or a propeller. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea defines a "power driven vessel" as any vessel propelled by machinery and even a sailboat while it has an engine running (i.e. under power) is technically a power driven vessel. A speedboat is a small motorboat designed to move quickly, used in races, for pulling water skiers, as patrol boats, and as fast-moving armed attack vessels by the military. Even inflatable boats with a motor attached which may be serving as a high speed patrol boat or as a plodding pedestrian dinghy providing transport to and from a mooring buoy are motorboats.

There are three popular variations of powerplants: inboard, inboard/outboard, and outboard. If the engine is installed within the boat, it's called an inboard; if it's a removable module attached to the boat, it's commonly known as an outboard motor.

An outboard motor is installed on the rear of a boat and contains the internal combustion engine, the gearbox, and the propeller.

An inboard/outboard contains a hybrid of a powerplant and an outboard, where the internal combustion engine is installed inside the boat, and the gearbox and propeller are outside.

A purely inboard boat contains everything except a shaft and a propeller inside the vessel. There are two configurations of an inboard, v-drive and direct drive. A direct drive has the powerplant mounted near the middle of the boat with the propeller shaft straight out the back, where a v-drive has the powerplant mounted in the back of the boat facing backwards having the shaft go towards the front of the boat then making a 'V' towards the rear.

Motorboats vary greatly in size and configuration, from the 4-meter, open Boston Whaler type to the luxury mega-yachts capable of crossing an ocean.