The Vice President of the United States is the ex officio President of the Senate, with authority to preside over the Senate's sessions, although he can vote only to break a tie. For decades the task of presiding over Senate sessions was one of the vice president's principal duties.
However, because they ride atop the water, rather than cutting through it as other hulls do, flat-bottom boats are usually limited in the size of their motors. The flat surface may also give a spine-jarring ride in anything less than calm weather.
Once the principle of a watertight hull is understood, animal hides or the bark of trees can be attached to a framework of bamboo or wicker to make a simple coracle. Boats of all these kinds have been made by technologically primitive communities, and many continue to be made into the 20th century.