Last summer I designed and installed a rowing set up in my 15 foot 1952 Grumman canoe. My goal was for the canoe to be faster, more maneuverable , and better for fishing. What I ended up with is a Water Cheetah. I can easily maintain 5 miles an hour for several miles, and it will spin inside a 20 foot circle. My biggest enemy is high winds. I can handle up to 40 mile per hour winds, but anything over that would drive me backwards. The picture shows my canoe at Baywood Boat Ramp on the New River in Virginia.
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It is an odd mode of propulsion. You can’t see where you are going. River boats were rowed that way for 100 years. Then someone turned the seat around to row facing down stream. Now boats like rafts and drift boats are rowed facing downstream. The common way to control the boat in the current is a back ferry. Using the strong muscles of the back and torso to pull against the current at an angle, to move the boat’s apparent motion sideways.
According to all of my non paddling friends, I do
There’s nothing odd about rowing while facing to the rear. It all depends on what you’re used to and what purpose your boat is designed for. In any case, to generically say “you can’t see where you are going” is hyperbole, for sure. Any rower who can’t get an accurate picture of what’s in front of him with a quick twist of the torso during a momentary pause in the recovery stroke (and I’m talking about rowing a boat with a fixed seat), simply isn’t good at rowing. It is a learned skill, and plenty of people who row, never learn to be any good at it at all (just like plenty of paddlers never learn to be any good at paddling). In any case, it would make ZERO sense to row facing forward in a boat that is designed to move through the water with decent efficiency.
I don’t go in rapids with my rowboats, but that “back-ferry” principle works nicely when going either upstream or downstream to negotiate crooked routes among obstacles. Technically it’s a forward ferry when going upstream but the maneuvering and propulsive principles are the same in both cases since either way, I’ll generally point the bow upstream for this process. Of course, a canoe is more suitable to such conditions but sometimes “you have the boat you have” and you make do.
I’ve been spoiled by rowing boats which “sort of look like canoes” but which are designed just for rowing. So no, I don’t row canoes but I can picture why you set your boat up that way.
Can you fully extend your legs in that rig? If not, modifying it so that you can, and with your feet against a brace, would add another dimension, especially if you can upgrade to oars that are about 7 feet long. With oars that long, set up having a proper ratio of inboard to outboard lengths, the handles will slightly cross in the middle but that’s easy to get used to. Even 8-foot oars would work. Good oars for this kind of application are not made by very many outfits and they are not easy to find online (and they are pricey).
In any case, you came up with a method for overcoming the first problems that arise when trying to row a canoe of that kind.
I row facing my direction of travel. so I can see where I’m going.
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I can fully extend my legs, but I do best with my legs not quite fully extended. My heels brace against a rib in the bottom, and I can feel that helping me get more power to the water.
Rowing facing forward changes everything.
Yes, rowing facing backward is faster, but I find it a lot harder to track straight when I try for speed going backward. I can maintain 5 miles per hour for several miles without really trying for speed rowing forward. I did 12 miles recently.
To control your tracking when rowing with your back toward the direction of travel, figure out your proper heading and then just look for a landmark that the back of your boat is pointed at, and keep it lined up. It’s exactly the same thing one does to maintain a straight line of travel on open water when facing the direction of travel and noting where the bow is pointed. Then just look “behind you” often enough to be appropriate for the circumstances (that is, look as often as necessary to ensure you won’t risk colliding with anything).
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In my case, usually that means watching for channel markers and buoys that have relocated themselves…
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Then you are using your triceps which are not very strong muscles for long distance paddling.
I don’t hike backwards either.
I would pay to see you row your 15 foot canoe in 40 mile per hour winds.
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This is a very interesting concept because a canoe’s long, narrow hull seems like it would be great for rowing, but I’m not sure I understand your setup from just the one picture. Are you sitting on the high seat with your legs over the orange thing, facing the fishing rods and going in the direction of your fishing rods?
My Adirondack Guideboats have been rowed in extreme high winds and 4 foot waves. It’s a very effective big water boat. Theres a reason you see a number of them with a cult following in Blackburn
That’s hardly a good analogy since the human body is designed in a way that makes it work really badly for walking backward. On the contrary, the design of the human body makes it far better at pulling on the oars than pushing them.
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When rowing, one needs to have the oars in front of them, not behind. Further, the oarlocks must be higher than one’s thighs. So, “that orange thing” is actually the seat, and the rower’s legs go underneath that green structure that looks a bit like a desk, on which the oarlocks are mounted (which you called a “high seat”).
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A couple months ago I rowed 12 miles in 4 hours, and stopped several times for fishing. I wasn’t even trying for speed. It was not a strain at all.
What do you consider long distance?
That’s a beautiful canoe you have.
I’m sure it’s a great pleasure to row such a work of art.
Thank you for the advice you have given me on this post. My canoe is put up for the winter now, so I won’t try what you have suggested until spring, But I will remember.
It’s obvious that you are far more experienced than I am.
I hope to hear more of your advice next spring as I continue to learn as much as I can of what you already know.
No. I sit on the orange thing and face the direction I’m rowing. Most people row backward, but I’m doing well by rowing facing my direction of travel.