Boat

The type of boat you will need will depend on the type of rowing that you will be doing, the boats are classified using number of rowers (1,2,4 or 8) and position of coxswain (either coxless - straight, bow-coxed or bowloaders or stern-coxed).
Racing boats (shells) are long, narrow and broadly semi-circular in cross-section to reduce drag. They usually have a fin toward the rear to help prevent roll and yaw and to increase the rudder effectiveness.
Boats use to be made of wood but now days are made from composite material (usually carbon-fibre reinforced plastic) which adds strength and gives weight advantages. There are rules specifying the minimum weights for each class of boat.
Although sculling and sweep boats are generally identical (but have different riggers) they are referred to using different names:
•    Sweep: straight pair (or coxless pair) (2-), coxed pair (2+), straight four (or coxless four) (4-), coxed four (4+), eight (8+) (always coxed)
•    Sculling: single (scull) (1x), double (scull) (2x), triple (scull) (3x) (very rare), quad (or quadruple) (scull) (4x), octuple (scull) (8x) (always coxed, and mainly for juniors and exhibition)
•    Sweep/Sculling: Queep, 2 scullers and 2 sweepers (very rare)