Rowing on the Androscogin River

[Ray Frechette Jr]

Took my Chamberlain Dory Skiff in the Auburn Maine Source to the Sea leg on the Androscoggin.

Put in above the Monty Dam and rowed up to the Deer Rips Dam with 7 other people all in canoes or Kayaks.

This was the first rowboat the event head has ever seen in any of the Source to the Sea legs. I could see people snickering wondering how I would be able to keep up with them.

Vast majority of people have no experience or frame of reference on Row boats. They have experience with aluminum motor boats that happen to have oarlocks on them and have probably pulled an oar a few times on them before swearing off rowing as an exercise in futility.

A few people exclaimed they had never seen such a fast row boat before.

At 14 LOA The CDS is not really a speed demon, but I was able to easily maintain 4-4.5 MPH on it and even impressed a few by powering up through the first set of rips at Deer Rips. 5.5 MPH was easily doable for short sprints too.

I explained to people the difference hull form makes in a boats performance. Optimizing for one endeavor necessarily hinders another endeavors performance potential.

Thursday night is next leg which is below the dam over to Dresser Rips and back with the largest single participant average most years. Should be 30 or so canoe and kayakers and One rower in a real row boat.

[wkisting]

Nice looking boat. I also think that's a very respectable speed for rowing. About equivalent to a sleek sea kayak, which tends to average 4 - 5 mph at a nice strong cruising pace. I've thought about building a small-ish rowboat myself, but don't know where I would store it and whether it would see enough use to justify building.

[Gordy Hill]

Hey Ray,

We've been waiting for the rest of the story!