page_title: Go-fast boat
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Go-fast boat / Construction
caption_attribution_description: US Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen with Special Boat Team 22 out of Stennis, MI operate a Special Operations Craft - Riverine (SOC-R) during riverine operations training.
context_page_description: A go-fast boat is a small, fast boat designed with a long narrow platform and a planing hull to enable it to reach high speeds.
  During the era of Prohibition in the United States, these boats joined the ranks of "rum-runners" transferring illegal liquor from larger vessels waiting outside US territorial waters to the mainland. The high speed of such craft enabled them to avoid interception by the Coast Guard. More recently the term "cigarette boat" has replaced the term "rum-runner". The present era of cigarette boats, dating from the 1960s, owes much of their design to boats designed for offshore powerboat racing, particularly by designer and builder Donald Aronow. During this period, these boats were used by drug smugglers to transfer drugs across the Caribbean to the United States.
context_section_description: A typical go-fast is laid-up using a combination of fibreglass, kevlar and carbon fibre, using a deep "V" style offshore racing hull ranging from 6.1 to 15.2 metres (20 to 50 ft) long, narrow in beam, and equipped with two or more powerful engines, often totalling more than 750 kilowatts (1,000 hp). The boats can typically travel at speeds over 80 knots (150 km/h; 92 mph) in calm waters, over 50 knots (93 km/h) in choppy waters, and maintain 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) in the average 1.5-to-2.1-metre (5 to 7 ft) Caribbean seas. They are heavy enough to cut through higher waves, although slower.
caption: US Navy SWCCs train with a modified go-fast boat during a training exercise in Mississippi
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