The term [skiff] is applied to various river craft, but a skiff is typically a small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern. Although originally used mainly by fishermen, they are today primarily leisure craft. They usually hold either one person or, more commonly, three (two scullers and a cox).
Many modern skiffs do carry a small outboard motor and have a center-console hull design, with a blunt bow, a flat bottom and a square stern. They are relatively inexpensive compared to skiboats or bass boats, and are common "working" boats, filling such jobs as ferrying passengers from the shore to a larger vessel, or employed by crab trappers.
The word has a complicated etymology: it comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself of Germanic origin. The word is related to ship.
Skiffs were once very common on the River Thames in England and featured in the famous book about a journey up the Thames in a skiff, Three Men in a Boat.
The term "skif" or "skif dank" is also a term often used in stoner cliques to relate the opinion that something is good, or of high quality.
Skiff are also high performance sailing dinghies. Exemples : 29er, 49er, 18 footer, musto skiff etc...
