designing a fast rowboat

boat

dcnblues, I see you are tending towards two boats. I'd like to suggest the Chesapeake Light Craft Annapolis Wherry. It would fit your desire for a good looking flat water boat and all the ergo's are worked out already

 

Yeah, I've considered it, thanks. The plus is stability with width. The minus is drag with increased surface area. Also, it would bother me to feel that the one-size-fits-all Piantedosi rigging wouldn't. It's a pretty boat for sure, and I think one of the ones that you can sign up for and go build in a week. That's very attractive.

I also like that it's low windage, and would probably do better in choppy water than one would expect as it would tilt with a wave rather than let the wave splash into the boat.

But I think I'll lean more towards a leaner boat, and build outriggers (custom to fit me) for the oarlocks. Then the question becomes how much freeboard and windage? Ruth and Liz are probably too low, and today the bay was actually fairly flat, but windy, and possibly Keith Quarrier’s Annie would have gotten her nose blown around a little. With good tracking and using oars, however, maybe it would have been fine. And I love the looks, but need to find out more about the boat.

Best of all, it's possible Clint Chase and the WoodenBoat School might offer Annie as a kit and a class (six day?), but the class would be hard for me to make with travel and getting the boat back to California from Maine. Clint also sent me a very nice email off thread, so I'm getting lots of help from the community here. Starting to owe lots of beers!

 

Perfectionists! You can't live with them, and you have to live without them when they get miles ahead of you in a race . . .

 

In my previous posts, I find that I mentioned considering the Wherry. As I've built a list of excellent boats and their basic stats, I think I'll list them for anyone who comes to this list looking for a boat. I originally posted these finalists in post #1003, (http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/designing-fast-rowboat-14250-67.html#post459287) but without their stats. Here they are:

 

Laughed out loud!

 

My take on a lightweight, relatively fast, rowing boat is this SOF aircraft alloy 16ft boat:







The frame weighed 8.2kg (about 18lbs), but I expect the finished boat to end up closer to 12 to 15kg.

My plan is to row the boat down the length of the river Thames in a few weeks time, in the company of some like-minded boating folk. It won't be a race though!

Jeremy

 

Pics or it didn't happen, Jeremy!

 

A write up of the design and build should be in "Water Craft" magazine (http://www.watercraft-magazine.com/index.html) later in the year. The boat is also an entrant in the "Cordless Challenge", a race around a lake at the Beale Park Boat Show, by the Thames just up river from Pangbourne over the weekend of 11th/12th June (http://www.bealeparkboatshow.co.uk/). The race is for boats not exceeding 5m LOA powered by one or more cordless tools, with the cordless tool total price not exceeding £400. The prize is over £1000 worth of Makita tools.

I'll post an update in due course on the success or otherwise of the adventures..........

Jeremy

 

Wow, gorgeous boat, but to an even greater extent, cool! Good luck.

I like wiring gadgets to my motorcycle, and I thought about this for Ruth, but your boat would benefit even more from a battery pack and an internal wiring system with a dozen or more micro LED's, and go for a row through London at night. You'd be the envy of the city...

 

Thanks for the kind words. I've never designed a boat before (my background is aviation) and don't feel that happy working in wood; metal and composite is stuff I feel happier with. This boat was heavily influenced by Dave Gentry's "Ruth". I was going to build a SOF canoe, then saw Dave's "Ruth" thread on the Wooden Boat forum and realised I could probably design a wherry just as easily as a canoe. I then discovered that it wouldn't be eligible for an Amateur Boat Building Award here, as they have a rule about boats needing to be made from wood. As a perverse reaction to this ruling I (rather rashly!) decided to not use any wood anywhere in the boat - everything, even down to the oars, is either metal, synthetic fabric or composite. It does make things like fitting floorboards tough, and has meant designing and building a set of oars, rather than buying wood ones. All told, I don't recommend being stubborn and not using any wood; for some parts of this boat the use of wood would have life much, much easier!

Jeremy

 

Yeah, welding aluminum is it's own art form, so the aircraft link makes sense. What you need is an aviation related name for the boat. Of course, the Wright Flyer was wood, so that's out. Or perhaps something a bit contrary, confrontational. The first ironclad warship seems to have be La Gloire, if you can bear a French name.

 

Here are a few others that I looked at:


Legacy Whitehall
19 "Sculling" Boat (Eglass hull) $6,680 with Single sliding / Kit: $2160*
Legacy Boat Builders Whitefish, Montana 59937
LOA: 19'2" BEAM: 39" LWL: 17'8" WEIGHT: 72# (92# rigged)
Displacement: 570# 1-3 Passengers
Equipped with: Piantedosi Row Wing sliding seat & 9'8" Sculling oars
http://legacywhitehalls.com/whitehalls.htm




Geodesic Airolite Classic 14
LOA: 14' Weight: 54 lbs. Beam: 48½" Capacity: 700 lbs.
4" LW Beam: 41½" Building time: 170 hrs est.
Stem Height: 19¾"
Amidship: 13½"
Plans: $85.00
Partial Kit: $150.00
http://gaboats.com/boats/classic14.html




—CLC / Chesapeake Light Craft Chester Yawl
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
Complete Kit $1289
Length: 15' 0"
Hull Weight: 100 lbs.
Beam: 42 in.
Max Payload: 450 lbs.
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/rowboats/chester-yawl-row-boat-kit.html



Of course the Liz (hull kit-row wing is add'l) $2700
Length (LOA) 18.07'
Length (LWL) 16.91'
Beam (BOA) 35.75"
Beam (BWL) 32.25""
Weight 85 lbs.
Displacement (Capacity) 550
Draft (at Capacity) 6.10
Center Depth 11.75"
Depth at Bow 18.36"
http://www.newfound.com/liz.htm




Heritage 15 Carbon
Length 15' 3" or 4.64 m
Width 40" or 101.6 cm
Ultralight Carbon Hull 75 lbs. std rail
Ultralight Carbon Hull 80 lbs teak rail
Carrying Capacity 431 lbs. or 195.5 kg $6495
http://www.littlerivermarine.com/heritage-15-carbon/




Seabird SPRITE
Designed by Andrew Wostenholme / E.Sussex / Kit and complete available
Length overall 15' 3" (4.65m)
Beam 2' 11"(0.9m) Beam over outriggers 4' 8" (1.42m)
Weight approx. 55 lb.(25kg)
http://www.woodenboats.uk.com/skiffs.html

 

And, having liked the Hobie Miragedrive, and everything Rick Willoughby wrote about leg power, I kind of like this one (even if I'd have to build it myself). You build your hull with a box that takes the drive as a drop-in. Long fins are available, and I figure I could build a similar craft with a reclining couch comfy enough to sleep in, solid enough for rough water, and possibly some kind of Kayak-like enclosure. From the same designer as this two-person speedster previously seen on this thread (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42YYFVYU720)

Lunada Design NAGARE 17 SINGLE
http://www.lunadadesign.com/nagare-21-dual-mirage-drive.html#more-6



I just thought this interesting, did not mean to hijack the thread or talk more about it.

 

Well it is great to see this thread reinvigorated. Germane to the current discussion is a story in the current Messing about in Boats. The story is about some one rowing a Guide boat long distances around the east coast. After rowing 226 miles - yes on one trip- he pulled the sliding seat out of the bow storage. " by switching to the slider my stroke rate went from 25 /min to 16/min. The GPS showed a flat water pace of 4.8 mph, fully 8-9mph better than the fixed seat"
The same effect can be demonstrated on an erg in 5 mins. Arms only = fast rate. arms and legs = slower rate.
Cudos for getting together such a great list of boats.
You might also check out the WoodenBoat story ( latest issue) on San Francisco's Viking class row boats. If you can visit I am quite sure that you will be able to glean quite a bit of information. If you actually get to go out in one I will be very envious.
I dont think you should assume that the spread of competitive boats is limited by production costs. Olympic level rowers are huge. I have stood next to a couple and what ran through my head was " oh so thats what the problem is". Plus at the international level there is a relatively large amount of money to research and build the best equipment ness. If you watch some olympic videos the margins of victory are really small.
I too, think that you ( and I ) should just go ahead and build the cheapest , quickest acceptable platform to experiment with. Something that can be cut up and modified. Find out what you really do like to row and the conditions you like to row in row. You dont want to be rowing some giant trans Atlantic crossing row boat all year just incase you wake up one morning with an urge to really get away. - Nick

 

Hi Nick, thanks for the post. Could you clarify the GPS pace re: stroke rate? Thanks.

I was a member of the Dolphin club here in SF, but let my membership lapse when I moved to a different part of town (5 years ago). They had two Vikings, but rigged for two rowers and couldn't be taken out solo. Now the club has a brand new Viking in gorgeous brightwork rigged for a single sculler, and I would LOVE to take it out. Just next door is another club, the South End Rowing Club, and they also have a single Viking (The Thor) which has seen more use. They seem long (at least 18") and heavy (at least 160lb) and relatively low, but have outriggers and would be a lot of fun. Not sure I'd want to swamp them though. They almost look like they'd sink, they're so solid. I've tried to find pics on the internet but haven't been able to. I could go by the club(s) and take a pic easily enough, and will try to do so. If I can, I'll find out their specs too.

One requirement for my boat will be to take it out whenever I want, and the clubs have a seniority system which means I'd be out of luck for, let's say, watching an America's Cup race. The Dolphin Club also has limits on wind, not going out past the GG bridge, and returning by dark. South End more liberal on rules, but fewer boat to select, not quite as museum-perfect quality state of maintenance as the Dolphin boats. But bottom-line, I want my own boat. First, I need to find a place to keep it (I'm looking in the Presidio). Then build it.