I have been looking at a ‘pulling’ (rowing) boat design for probably two years now. I have played with lots of ideas. I pretty much finished the design on Sweetbriar but just never built it.  Not sure why but I just kept finding myself trying other things. A couple of weeks ago I was bouncing ideas around on the Wooden Boat Forum when I had a new idea.

What if I took one of my previous designs and made it more like a scull. Add a deck with coamings instead of an open boat.  Lowered the profile while trying to keep some traditional styling in the boat. (I am a big fan of traditional boats)

For those of us that are more experienced boaters (read: older) keep some stability since this is for exercise and recreation. Long enough to take advantage of the sliding seat. For use on protected water and but keep the bow tall enough that it can deal with some chop too. Crown the decks to divert water off to the sides.

This is what I ended up with.  If you could see the waterlines it is essentially a double ender. The transom acts as a bit of a rudder and is largely for looks.  The final version has a rounded shape and doesn’t come to point like I show in the drawing. The plan is a to varnish the transom and you could even put a name on there in the traditional manner.

I have started working on the prototype of a drop-in sliding seat rowing unit for this one. I need to get the frame built so I can check the fit and work out some of the details like how I want to mount it to the boat.  I need to come up with a simple-to-build outrigger. That is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I want something that anyone with some basic woodworking skills can build.

Weather is calling for 5 days or rain starting this afternoon. I just made a run to my lumber supplier and picked up a bunch of plywood yesterday. I see a lot of shop time next few days.