What are cigarette boats, rum-runners, and/or go-fast boats?

It seems that all three terms apply to a cross-patch of similar usage and type of small motor boat. Rum-runner, being the earliest of the three terms to be used, referred to any watercraft used for smuggling during the Prohibition era in the USA. read more

The more commonly-used name for these high-performance boats in civilian use in the USA is go-fast boat. So, a ‘cigarette boat’ is a go-fast boat; a type of high-speed, planing powerboat.* A cigarette boat is also a ‘rum-runner’; it’s just another name for the high-speed craft used in smuggling narcotics or, in the old days, illegal liquor. read more

It is generally taken to refer to a particular form of extreme racing powerboat. If you want to go fast in a boat, there are some things to do in displacement mode to increase speed, very long length, narrow beam, shallow draft [ low weight ]. Hence the very long narrow hull form, and the nick-name ‘cigarette’. read more

A "go-fast" is the preferred boat of many [quantify] smugglers. 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 U.S. territorial waters to the mainland. read more