Rowing the Weekender

[Herschel Payne]

Although my Weekender will not be finished until the end of June, ( I'm kayaking in the Carolinas

this winter and I'm from Canada ) I'd like to hear from those of you who have set up Weekenders for rowing.

How did your boat handle? Was the rowing performance (sort of) satisfactory? It is obvious of course that this is not a rowing machine but will it move along respectfully under decent conditions?

I like to be able to row/paddle a couple of hours on every outing. I have a double sailing kayak

but I still enjoy the workout with a paddle.

Best to all, Herschel

[Bud_Wilson]

If you are going to row the weekender for a couple of hours, drop your sail about 100 or 200 yds from the dock this should get you about two hours of rowing. Bud

[Herschel Payne]

Thanks Bud. I can't stop laughing! Does anyone have anything more positive to add?

[Frank Hagan]

Bud's a crack up. 

I haven't rowed my Weekender, but when I was having outboard trouble, I had the opportunity to paddle it around.  Once you get it moving, it doesn't take much to keep it going.  It did make docking easier.

[Andrew_Butchart]

I set my Weekender up for rowing after hearing a number of postive stories about it.

It turns out that it only rows OK in no or light winds.  I was out on my one and only launch last August in 20+ knot winds with steering failure.  The boat wouldn't row worth a damn into the wind - I couldn't even point it into the wind.

My 8' oars were handy for pushing me out of the patch of weeds that I grounded into but I had problems keeping the oar locks in their holder.  I ended up losing one on the highway on the way home.

With that said, I'm keeping the oars and have done some re-engineering to keep the oar-locks with the boat as in low or no wind situations I can see them still being useful.

[Hirilonde]

I would think a boat like the Weekender would require 10 foot oars at least to row well? 

I use round oarlocks with buttons on the oars so that even I can't lose them.