Human-powered watercraft

The three main methods of exerting human power are:

1. directly from the hands or feet, sometimes aided by swimfins;
2. through hand-operated oars, paddles, or poles, or;
3. through the feet with pedals, crankset or treadle.

While most human-powered watercraft use buoyancy to maintain their position relative to the surface of the water, a few, such as human-powered hydrofoils and human-powered submarines, use hydrofoils, either alone or in addition to buoyancy.

Oared craft

• Oars are held at one end, have a blade on the other end, and pivot in between in oarlocks. Such craft include:
  • Racing shell

• Using oars in pairs, with one hand on each oar, is two-oar sculling. The oars may also be called sculls. Such craft include:
  • Adirondack guideboat
  • Banks dory, Gloucester dory, and McKenzie River dory
  • Dinghy
  • Sampans rowed by foot in Ninh Bình Province of northern Vietnam.
  • Scull, Single scull, Double scull, Quad scull, and Octuple scull
  • Skiff
  • Sneakbox
  • Row boat

• Using oars individually, with both hands on a single oar, is sweep rowing or sweep-oar rowing. In this case the rowers are usually paired so that there is an oar on each side of the boat. Such craft include:
  • Coxless pair, Coxed pair, Coxless four, Coxed four, and Eight
  • Galley, Dromon, Trainera, and Trireme

• Moving a single stern-mounted oar from side to side, while changing the angle of the blade so as to generate forward thrust on both strokes, is stern sculling or single-oar sculling. Such craft include:
  • Gondola
  • Sampan
  • Sandolo