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 Interestingly enough, there are more inland watercraft than there are sea going craft around the globe. The reason for this is simple, if we consider that everything that ply’s an inland waterway, from the smallest rowing dingy to the large pleasure cruisers which tour the huge lakes and rivers such as the Mississippi, then we can easily see that the numbers cannot be accurately counted, but must exceed the number of sea going craft by an order of magnitude.
Inland craft, on the whole, are not regulated to such an extreme as their sea going counterparts. The skipper of an inland craft will also not be required to undertake any form of formal qualification before they are allowed to pilot the vessel. It should be noted however, that certain qualifications may be needed to carry certain cargos or to handle vessels over s certain size or displacement for commercial purposes.
Inland craft are constructed in a similar fashion to a sea going counterpart, but will usually not include such a deep keel (although for some tidal waterways, a local boat may use a heavy keel) or many of the safety features included in the construction of a sea going boat. An inland craft will seldom carry an alternative source of power, due to the fact that they operate so closely to land.
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