Cutters used to be carried by ships to move supplies and persons in harbors. A Coast Guard cutter is a light warship of some 2 000 tons powered by diesel engines and equipped with a small cannon. A dinghy is used to ferry people between the larger boat and the dock. A cutter is a broad boat with a square stern or rear end. If the boards are laid edge to edge the boat is carvel-built. If the boards overlap the boat is clinker-built. Among the larger kinds of carvel-built boats are launches pinnaces and cutters. Among the best known clinker-built small boats are the popular dinghy gig and whaleboat. A pinnace is a light sailboat.
A dinghy is a small rowboat about 6 to 10 feet long propelled by oars and used either as a pleasure craft or as a service boat for larger sail boars and motorboats. Big motorboats may tow their dinghies behind them or have them fastened down on the deck. Today a cutter is either a large heavy rowboat carried on big steamships and driven by ten oars or one of the large fast steel boats used by the United States Coast Guard Clinker Built Boat Plans. They are used by ships to carry supplies and sailors to and from the shore and large launches are sometimes used as pleasure boats on lakes and rivers.
Boats may be built out of boards or planks in two different styles. Launches are open or undecked boats Clinker Built Boat Plans. It was used in the past as a tender or supply boat for larger ships. Many of these are as much as 36 feet long and 8 to 10 feet wide. It is driven by oars motor or sails.