Boat talked up — good initially (3)
I believe the answer is:
tug
'boat' is the definition.
(tug is a kind of boat)
'talked up good initially' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'talked up good' is 'TUG'.
(Other definitions for tug that I've seen before include "water tower" , "draw with some effort" , "gravitational force" , "Pull; loop on saddle" , "jerk" .)