Since I have been in Thailand I have always had a fascination in the way the Thai people build there Tailboats here in Thailand a Tailboat is as popular as a Tuk-Tuk on the streets of Bangkok only the Tailboat is like the Tuk-Tuk of the Andaman Sea, it's the main transportation used here in Thailand to get you from one island to another and us foreigners love them just as much as riding in a Tuk-Tuk.
These Tailboats as actually known as the Gondolas of Southern Thailand, in Thai these boats are called "Ruang Hang Yao" meaning Long-Tail-Boat they come in many shapes and sizes but what makes them more distinctive from other boats is they have a long tail, a pole attached to the stern of the boat with a propeller attached to it and the idea of having these long propeller shafts combined with the wideness of the body and the height of the front section of the Tailboat, it enable the vessels to cope better with the rough seas especially during monsoon periods.
In the past few months I have had the opportunity to ride in these Tailboats from island to island, to my surprise I found these boats are actually fitted with car engine some have 4 , V6 and even V8 cylinder engines fitted to them and they can push out up to 500 HP or more getting up to some crazy speeds like up to 70 mph (112 km/h) They even have Tailboat drag racing competitions here in Thailand, flying down the rivers at insane speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) would love to go to one of these drag meetings at some point.