The Difference Between a Speedboat and a Sailboat

People love to go sailing, the idea of being out on the open water enjoying the weather and soaking in the sun. Perhaps you love to go fishing as well and want to take a shot at getting a few catches in. There are so many great places to sailing all across the United States. But how do you know if you want to go sailing, or if you want to take out a speed boat? Well there are many advantages to both types of boats and there are a few disadvantages to both of them as well.

There are the obvious advantages to both scenarios as well, sailing may be better for the environment, but it is definitely slower, there are of course many more advantage and disadvantages. Let’s take a look at a few of them and perhaps this will help you decided which kind of boat is best for you and your water adventure.

Advantages of Sailboats

Sailboats blend well with the environment especially with the wind and good handling as well as that under calm conditions, sailboats are better and do not make any noise or cause waves, so they have a smoother ride for the sailors. They are piloted from the back, giving you a good front view of where you are going. Sailboats also have the capacity to move across oceans and still save cost on longer trips. Engines use less fuel and are cheaper and easier to run than speedboats.

Disadvantage of Sailboats

While sailing is a beautiful thing there are still a few things that are not so great about it. For example, there is more limited space in sailboats than in speedboats. More space can be created only by using a longer boat. Without the wind blowing, sailboats cannot move. The engine on sailboats is for moving away from or moving towards the port, so if it is a still day you cannot go very far.

Advantage of Speedboats

So now let’s look at what makes speedboats so great!

Speedboats are usually wide enough to give comfort like places to sleep, bathrooms and galleries, and a large part of the boat stands above water.  Speedboats are easier and simpler to pilot than sailboats. You only need to turn the engine on and move at the speed you want. Speedboats are very fast unlike sailboats that move slowly unless pushed by strong winds. You can also water-ski on speedboats due to the speed.

Disadvantages of Speedboats

It is very expensive to keep up speedboats especially in terms of refueling or being stranded in the middle of the water. While speed boats are fun because they use more fuel, they are therefore more expensive and if you want to take a long trip then this can be a negative feature. Due to the higher center of gravity of a speedboat, violent winds can easily threaten it. It is also very expensive to keep up a speedboat engine and the fact is that many speedboats have two sets of engines. And lastly a speedboat engine produces a lot of noise when running and this does not encourage relaxation on the trip.

There are surprisingly more differences between these two boats then one would think, keep these things in mind if you’re hunting for a new boat! Now that you know you will no doubt be able to make an informed decision.

Comments are closed.