Sponsons are projections from the sides of a watercraft, for protection, stability, or the mounting of equipment such as armaments or lifeboats , etc. They extend a hull dimension at or below the waterline and serve to increase floatation or add lift when underway. A watercraft is a vehicle designed to float on and move across (or through) water for pleasure, physical exercise (in the case of many small boats), transporting people and/or goods, or military missions. ... In naval architecture, instantaneous stability is a measure of how a vessels buoyancy is distributed. ... Waterline refers to an imaginary line marking the level to which ship or boat submerges in the water. ...

Sponsons are commonly used on jetskis and other personal watercraft such as canoes to provide either additional buoyancy and thus stability against capsize, or hydrodynamic forces to resist capsize. They can often be easily attached to an existing craft in order to improve its stability. Jet ski is the brand name of Kawasaki Heavy Industries personal water craft. ... A canoe is a relatively small boat, typically human-powered, but also commonly sailed. ... Hydrodynamics is fluid dynamics applied to liquids, such as water, alcohol, oil, and blood. ...

On ships, they are far less common than such stabilizing means as pontoons, outriggers and dual hulls, due to their comparatively poor performance in stabilizing large hulls. However, sponsons are sometimes added to improve stability when ships are modified. A pontoon boat, like this small pleasure boat, typically floats and balances by means of two pontoons oriented in the direction of travel. ... In a canoe or bangca, an outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilise an inherently unstable main hull. ...

Sponsons are used on the fuselages of flying boats. They take the form of a short wing which when travelling through the water provides hydrodynamic stability during take off and landing. Boeing 314 A flying boat is an aircraft that is designed to take off and land on water, in particular a type of seaplane which uses its fuselage as a floating hull (instead of pontoons mounted below the fuselage). ...

The term "sponson" for armament mounting is sometimes used for land vehicles as well, such as the WWI Mark I tank. In the case of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which doubles as a troop transport and armament platform, the sponson refers to the aspect of the vehicle body directly over the tracks and includes layers of hardened, bullet proof materials to protect the occupants. A Mark I tank on 26 September 1916 (moving left to right). ... General Characteristics (M2 Bradley) Length: 21 ft 2 in (6. ...