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Rowing the W Kayak?…

A prospecting customer recently asked me if we offer oarlocks for the W.

We offer neither oarlocks nor oars because there’s very little demand for rowing solutions, as most people nowadays prefer paddling.

Rowing used to be a popular recreational and sporting activity in the 19th century, and many fishermen still use a wide variety of small rowing boats and watercrafts for fishing. Practically speaking, paddling has too many advantages over rowing for anyone to consider switching from paddling back to rowing for applications such as touring or fishing, especially in the ocean or fast rivers.

However, rowing offers a type of physical exercise that paddling doesn’t, and it shouldn’t be completely ruled out as an option, especially on flat water.

It’s possible to install oarlocks in the W kayak and turn it into a nice rowing boat: Not as fast as one of those long rowing shells, of course, but very stable and comfortable. You’ll be able to launch, row and beach it where rowing shells are not an option, and you’ll be able to row standing as well - I tried it and it’s fun!



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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at and is filed under Kayaks, fishing, kayak fishing, outfitting, paddling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Rowing the W Kayak?…”

  1. Warren Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    ROWING?!?

  2. April Leder Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    I think paddling the W would be faster than rowing it even if you used a single blade paddle in the canoing style.
    April

  3. admin Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    “I think paddling the W would be faster than rowing it even if you used a single blade paddle in the canoing style.”

    It would - if you’re a good canoeist :-)

    Yoav

  4. Mike H Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    Why do guys think paddling is faster than rowing? I believe rowing sculls are faster than and racing kayak out there.
    Mike

  5. admin Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    Mike,
    Racing sculls are faster than racing kayaks because they are much narrower than kayaks are. This design is possible to achieve by placing the passenger on top of the hull instead of inside it.
    The problem with rowing is that although each oar stroke is more powerful than a paddle stroke (especially in the kayaking style) the intervals between oar strokes are much longer, and this means that the boat is losing more momentum for each stroke. When the boat loses momentum it loses speed, and the passenger needs to accelerate it time after time. Acceleration requires a lot of energy, and that’s basically the problem.
    Yoav

  6. Quebec Seakayaker Says:
    March 19th, 2008 at

    What I didn’t like about rowing, among other things, was that you row facing where you come from instead of where you’re going.

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