The foot is often used as a unit of measurement in boating. It's easy to speak of a "33-foot boat", rather than a "10-m boat". This choice comes from our British friends, who use this ancient measurement for boats. The foot is the unit of length corresponding to the length of a human foot. That's about 30 cm.
Since 1960, one foot has corresponded exactly to 30.48 cm.
1 foot = 30.48 cm
The foot is divided into 12 inches.
1 foot = 12 inches
The symbol is ' (apostrophe) or ft (for foot). The inch symbol is " (quotation mark). That's why the length of a 21' 6" boat is written as 21'6" (or 6.55 m. Simple, isn't it?).
To get an idea of the length of a boat, you can divide the length in feet by 3 to get an approximate length in meters. So a 21-foot boat is about 7 m long.
If feet are used in boating, they're also used in aeronautics. Altitude, in particular, is always given in feet. The captain will say: "We're currently flying at 10,000 feet".
Shipyards continue to designate their production in feet. Thus the new Fountaine-Pajot will be a 47-footer (14.32 m), or the Sun Odyssey 550 is a 55-footer. But don't be fooled. Shipyards don't always use the foot for their names. This is often the case with powerboats. For example, the Merry Fisher 750 measures 7.50 m, not 75 feet...
Feet to meters conversion table
| 12 feet | 3,66 m |
| 15 feet | 4,57 m |
| 18 feet | 5,49 m |
| 20 feet | 6,10 m |
| 21 feet | 6,40 m |
| 22 feet | 6,70 m |
| 25 feet | 7,62 m |
| 28 feet | 8,53 m |
| 30 feet | 9,14 m |
| 35 feet | 10,67 m |
| 38 feet | 11,58 m |
| 40 feet | 12,19 m |
| 45 feet | 13,72 m |
| 50 feet | 15,24 m |
| 55 feet | 16,76 m |
| 60 feet | 18,29 m |
| 70 feet | 21,34 m |
| 80 feet | 24,38 m |
| 90 feet | 27,43 m |
| 100 feet | 30,48 m |
