Keelboat
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open water, while modern recreational keelboats have prominent fixed fin keels, and considerable draft. The two terms may draw from cognate words with different final meaning.
Historical North American keel-boats
A Keel boat,Keelboat, or Keel-boat is a type of usually long narrow cigar-shaped riverboat, or unsheltered water barge which is sometimes also called a poleboat—that is built about a slight keel and is designed as a boat built for the navigation of rivers, shallow lakes, and sometimes canals that were commonly used in America including use in great numbers by settlers making their way west in the century-plus of wide-open western American frontiers. They were also used extensively for transporting cargo to market, and for exploration and trading expeditions, for water transport was then most effective means to move bulky or heavy cargo.
