Most crafts in fresh waters of HLK are variations of a traditional primitive wooden boat which roots go thousand years back, developed through exprience by local fishermen and buiders from Neolithic age dug-out canoes. These crafts are known as " plava" (πλάβα) and " plaves" (πλάβες) in plural . Length varies from 5.5m to about 12m but with very narrow beam, generally a 6m plava has a beam of 0.9m to 1.2m and flat bottom. Larger are mostly tourist vessels for birdwatcing, but also passenger variants built in the past. Smaller are used by professional fishermans. Both Gendarme and Forest Guard have plaves except of modern RIB anb GRP crafts, together with airboats and small hovercrafts in swallow fresh waters. Only classic/traditional vessels are allowed in fresh waters of the Kingdom to keep traditional character, except for some tourist/passenger vessels. In latter role, everything can be seen, from large 10-12m plaves to passenger hydrofoils and semi-SES craft.
The passenger 12m plaves built for connecting lakeside villages, belong to the villagers themselfs, as all together fund the construction of each craft. First appeared back in 1870's and were sailing/oaring, later 1920's/1930's designs were diesel/oil powered. Usually a single one cylinder semi-diesel engine was installed, in an era were roads were rare, together with transportation equipment. Recent use outboard motors, as also many smaller ones since 1960's, when first outboard plaves appeared. Some older large plaves are still in use, now characterized "traditional items".
Examples
1,4,5: The most common plava "design"
2: Large tourist/birdwatching plava, these also served as passenger vessels across lakes connecting lakeside villages
3: River plava
6: The unigue plava of Lake Orestias, known as "karavi" (Καράβι)
7: Note the narrow beam of a plava!
8: Going full throttle!
9: A sunset with some plaves on the beach, the advantage of flat bottom.
10: Lagoon plava, in use in mid-West Hellas lagoons and shallow Ionian Sea waters. Several names exist, describing size and use (fishing, transport etc). Today only fishing variants exist.