I just bought a large 16' fiberglass boat with a V bow to use as a fishing rowboat. Can such a boat be rowed?

Archimedes said " give me a long enough lever , and I can move the world " .

So yes , in theory , and given a long enough oar , you can move a Supertanker about .

As a mater of practical history the watermen on the river Thames in London used to use a long heavy oar called a " Sweep " to move Thames Lighters around - those barge things you always see moored in the foreground in pics of the U K Houses of Parliament .

And in the days when small marine engines were in their infancy 100+ years ago , most sailing yachts carried the same thing ( known then as a " wooden topsail " ) for shifting their boats in flat calms .

So yes it will row .

As with ALL rowing the trick is to pace yourself to the task - no good setting a racing pace and getting puffed out and blistered hands in the first 5 minutes .

In waves dip the blades quickly and tug hard and short , in calm water long steady strokes are the way .

Keep your arms straight and pull with your back and shoulder muscles , not your arms .

in the 1970's I went from north carolina to japan and back in a 32ft, ioo year old oyster dredging skipjack. had to borrow an outboard to go through and back through the panama canal, but other than that, when i wasn't sailing, i was rowing. had two pairs of sweeps aboard, about 11 feet long.in about 2 min, i could get her up to 3-5knt in a calm. once moving, it gets easier. if you havn't any locks, and you think the gunnels are too flimsy, back em with some wooden inwales. short answer.....Yes. if you have a very shallow or non-existant keel, you will have an easier time of it if you add something.

will be row able but at 5' beam probably better suited to two rowers. Power boats make lousy rowboats, heavy & slow.

Look on the bright side you'll get a good aerobic workout.

1

Not an ideal row boat. Buy a used trolling motor. Wouldn't cost too much and will get you around calm water just fine

With a 60 foot beam you are just dreaming. You can't row that big a boat.

The problem will be installing ore-locks on the rail, the fiberglass is far too weak to do this on and have them hold.

You could do ore-locks but you will have to install a back plate on the mounting bolts or it will eventually break off.

Far too big to row!

You will need an out board motor!

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