Ships carry lifeboats (also called ship’s boats), and lifeboats of quite
different type are owned and manned by the Coast Guard in the USA, the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution in Britain, and equivalent bodies in other
countries. Private pleasure craft are not big enough to have dinghies which can
serve as lifeboats, though the better-quality inflatable dinghies are a good
compromise. The true ship’s lifeboat for a yacht is the inflatable Liferaft