OARS

Boats have oars or paddles.  Sometimes a boat with oars has a sail, but oars are the expected means of propulsion.  
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A VIKING boat, with a crew of 16 men men, may have rowed on the Viking Waterway.

If the boat is rowed by a crew, part of the crew may rest while the rest of the crew is still rowing.  Thus, a crew rowed boat can move over the water day and night.
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Boats may operate on the ocean, but they do not usually go too many days from shore.  Boats can go up rivers.  
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Boats are light, maneuverable, and can be taken out of the water if necessary. Boats can be used for shelter.  
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The boats that rowed on the Vinland Waterway may have been similar to the narrow Knarr in the picture above.  When portages were expected, the mast and the boom may have rested on the yoke seen in front of the man in the bow.  
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Mast, boom, oars, and load may have been portaged in a separate carry.  Then, if necessary, the 16 man crew may have lifted the empty boat and carried it overland.
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Ships usually have few oars.  In olden times, they depended only on sails for propulsion.  Ships are designed to cross oceans, but they sail only into the deepest rivers.  Ships require capital, many manufacturing skills, and harbors at both ends of the voyage.
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Ice may sink ships, while people with boats can survive until the ice melts or row along the edge of the ice. Thus the preferred method of travel in the cold north of America was by boat.
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Ocean shores, lakes, and rivers were an efficient, renewable travel-way for America.  Boats were much more important than having wheels. 

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