Rowboats

What is a rowboat?

Rowboats, as opposed to canoes and kayaks, are propelled by oars that are held in place at a pivot point attached to the boat. These pivot point do not change their position as the boat is rowed. This pivot point is a fulcrum if the oar is a lever.

Rowers typically face the stern of the boat. Various clever mechanisms have been tried to allow the rower to face forward but none so far have been widely adopted

Some boats are rowed facing forward such as Venician gondolas, or Chinese sculled boats. There is also a long tradition of fishermen in the Canadian and US east coats facing forward and leaning on to their oars. They are generally standing and using an extended oarlock stem. Since this is a practical way of rowing I'm sure it occurs throughout the world.

Why Row

I can't beat John Gardiner's own words in Selecting and Building Classic Small Craft

...rowing becomes to some extent an end in itself. Ideally the oarsman and his boat act together in a harmony of motion and balance not unlike a similar unity of response and action achieved by the equestrian and his mount.

To get to the point of feeling this way when rowing, you have to have a suitable rowboat, and be comfortable rowing her.

What makes a good rowboat.

As usual the answer is "it depends"

There is no ideal rowboat that will satisfy perfectly in all conditions.

It follows that the most important questions to answer first is: where will this rowboat be used and to what purpose? Once that is clear then choices can be made.

Some factors that have to be considered are waterline length, carrying capacity, stability, windage, weight, seaworthiness, beam, shape of the ends, trim, rocker and more. There is also issues of cost and construction difficulty that come into play. Another issue that has a huge impact on choice of a recreational craft is appearance.

Long vs Short Rowboats

Length is one factor that is easy to assess. Longer (within reason) is almost always better. Other things being equal a longer boat is faster and easier to move. Its no surprise then that rowing shells, which are designed with speed as the most important criteria, are long needle sharp crafts. Because rowboats are not planing hulls but rather displacement hulls, they benefit from long thin ends to slice through the water. If the boat is shortened then the ends become less pointy and this lessen their ability to slice through water.

Small or no Transom

To slice through the water, most rowboats are double ended or have very small transoms. Often the transom is so high that it is out of the water and the boat is essentially double ended below the waterline.

A large strong transom is essential to support the weight and force of a motor. A rowboat has no such requirement and can dispense with the transom with no loss. By avoiding the wide back end causing eddies behind the boat, the drag of the blunt end is avoided and the boat moves more easily.

Freeboard and Windage

The height of the sides outside of the water or freeboard has a large effect on a rowboat. If the freeboard is high, the boat will be safer in rougher water and will not swamp easily. The downside is that the wind will push against the sides of the boat and make it difficult to handle.

Banks dories have a bad reputation when it comes to windage. They are notoriously difficult to row when the wind is up and they are not weighted down with fish. The high sides that gives them their high carrying capacity and the ability to handle rough seas makes them unpleasant in high wind.

My Skerry is a good rowing/sailing boat but when the wind picks up the relatively high sides make it difficult to keep the boat going in the right direction.

Rowing shells are at the absolute extreme end of the spectrum. They are made with the lowest possible sides both to minimize weight and windage. This makes them very unsafe as soon as the least waves build up and threatens to swamp them but this favours speed.

Weight

Although the weight distribution is important in the trim of the boat or how it sits on the water, weight is not a huge issue. Of course extreme weight is a disadvantage, but so is extreme light weight.

A rowboat benefits from moderate mass to keep it going after each stroke. This is particularly true if the boat is being rowed in waves. A very light boat tends to stop, a heavier boat slices through the waves. The inertia keeps it going more smoothly and create a more comfortable ride.

There are many advantages in very light crafts that make them a delight to launch and transport as well as responsive and quick but they are not heavy weather craft.

Keels and Skegs

Deeper keels and skegs tend to keep a boat running on a straight course. If the main purpose of the boat is open water rowing then it will benefit from a keel.

Photo by Silje L. Bakke
A keel will make the boat more difficult to turn but it will track well.

If the keel is particularly deep at the fore end of the boat, it will track nicely but will behave poorly if it needs to be towed. It will also be poorly behaved in surf. For these purposes a rounder bow is preferable to a v shape.

Rocker vs Flat

Rocker adds stability and makes the boat easier to turn but is a poor performer if the boat has to be beached. Flatter then is an advantage.

Stability

Many successful rowboat shapes feel "tippy" when you get into them but when you try to deliberately swamp them they resist valiantly. At first they easily lean over but then they stiffen and resist with considerable secondary stability.

A nice rowboat will feel lively and responsive. If you are inexperienced this might make you uncertain at first. Soon you get to trust your boat.

Rowing shells are quite the opposite. They have been designed to be fast at the expense of everything else and have very little material above the water line, to make them stable. Balancing the little thoroughbred boats is the first skill that is learned.

Getting a Rowboat

Because there is very little demand for good rowboats there are very few being manufactured. Typically a boat is designed to sport a motor and oarlocks are added to also make it a rowboat. Although such a boat might be moved by oars it will never be a pleasure to row.

Most boats built and advertised for rowing are subject to compromise to make them easier to transport. In particular they are shortened beyond what is ideal.

Building a rowboat is one area where home builders have an advantage. By making their own boats they can identify the features they want and can produce a boat completely suited to their needs. Homebuilders can also afford to spend the time to finish their boats in a nicer way.

Fine rowboats are also being built by smaller shops.

Multifunction boat

Although rowboat/motorboat is not often a happy combination, rowboat/sailboat can be more successful. If we all had our druthers we would have a boat for sailing, one for rowing, a kayak, a keelboat, a outrigger and a couple more just for fun.

Many designers have tackled the problem and come up with workable alternatives. My beloved Skerry is a sweet little rowboat when the wind is not too strong. In high wind it has too much windage to be much fun, but who want to row when there is lots of wind!!?

Iain Oughtred's Elf and others are nice rowboats when they are not being sailed.

The NorseBoat calls itself the swiss army knife of boating and their boat have nice lines.

Francois Vivier has a couple of models which are well suited to sailing and rowing. Among them his Elorn and Seil stand out. In French but use google translation if you need to.

Some Vocabulary

Cox, Coxwain

In a rowing shell the cox sits in the back of the boat facing the front and the rowers and helps sets the pace. He also encourages and urges the team to great effort.

Fine Boat

fine refers to the shape of the boat. Finer boats slice through the water. In the UK it is a synonim for rowing shell or rowing scull.

Freeboard

This is the height of the sides that is outside the water. Boats with hight freeboard are better and safer in bigger waves but are more affected by the wind. (windage)

Gunwales, gunnels

are the horizontal boards attached to the top of the boat sides. The gunwales help stiffen and protect the boat and provide a spot to attach the oarlocks.

Thole Pins

are wood rods or pins which act as oarlocks. They are sometimes removable, They can be seen in the faerings above.

Single-oar sculling

is an ancient way of propelling a boat by moving a single stern mounted oar back and forth. The angle is changed at each side to side stroke. Sculling is used in many parts of the world. An example is the Chinese sampan. The sculling oar is then called a yuloh. Skulling is also used as a synonym to rowing in racing sculls. Sculls can refer to long narrow racing rowboats, or to the oars used in the racing sculls.

Shell or fine boats

racing shells are very long narrow rowing boat designed for racing or exercise. They have long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks at the proper distance from the hull, and sliding seats. The shell's long length and semicircular shaped bottom reduce drag. This makes the racing shell fast and very unstable.

Outriggers, Riggers

In rowing sculls extensions are used to widen the space between the oarlocks. These are riggers or outriggers. The sculls are so narrow that it is not possible to mount the oarlocks directly on the hull.

Oarlocks, Rowlocks, Rollocks

support the oar and keep it in position as the oar pivots against the boat. Oarlocks can be round or horn shaped with a pin or rod that fits through an oarlock socket attached to the boat. The oarlock acts as a fulcrum to the oar which acts as a lever.

Sliding Seat

Many rowboats and rowing shells have sliding seats that increase the power to the oars because they permit the rower to add the push of the legs to the stroke.

Thwart

supports that run from side to side in a boat and add rigidity and help maintain shape.

Trim

How a boat sits in the water. If the trim is good the boat will move efficiently through the water. IF the trim is bad then speed and handling will be reduced.

Waterline Beam

The width of a boat at the waterline

Waterline Length

The length of a boat at water level. LWL is often much less than overall length. The speed of a boat depends a great deal on the waterline length. Theoretical Hull speed is calculated from the Waterline length.

Windage

Windage is the effect of wind acting on the sides and mast of a boat. Boats that have high sides are subject to more windage while boats with less freeboard are not as sensitive to being blown around.

History of Rowboats

Rowboats have been around since early history. Images abound of Phoenician, Greek and Roman Galleys with hundreds of oars.

Viking ships were also equipped with oars. Many of the smaller viking and scandinavian boats such as faerings were propelled using oars and sail. Faering refers to 4 oar positions.

Rowboats large and small are ubiquitous throughout the middle ages and a walk through any art gallery will produce many examples.

Closer to our times, fishermen and ferrymen have used countless variations of rowboats.

Whenever more than one rower meet there is bound to be competition and thus there are many regional festivals throughout the world where rowboat races are an attraction.

The shape and development of rowing craft follows the intended use and the conditions of the waters. Fishermen and ferrymen developed their dories, peapods, wherries, whitehalls, bateaus, surf boats and countless variations to answer their needs.

When sportsmen adopted rowing, design emphasis changed from seaworthiness, sturdiness and carrying capacity to speed.

Endurance rowing has many enthusiasts. Long distance dory races are held in St.Pierre et Micquelon and elsewhere. There are also long distance super races across the Atlantic held in specially built rowing boats. Photo Remi Jovan