Cotton Row is recreational rowing boat. She has a 19′ 8″ OAL with a waterline length of 18′ 10″ at 200 lbs displacement. Beam is aapproximately 26″. Waterline beam will be around 22″. As you can see in the photos Cotton Row has a small varnished wineglass transom.
I have wanted a rowing boat for some time and I was bouncing ideas around on the Wooden Boat Forum when I had a new idea.
What if I took one of my previous hull designs and made it more like a scull.
* Add a deck with comings instead of an open boat. Lowered the profile while trying to keep some traditional styling in the boat?
* For those of us that are more experienced boaters (read: older) keep some stability since this is for exercise and recreation.
* Make it long enough to take advantage of the sliding seat.
* Keep it for use on protected water but keep the bow tall enough that it can deal with some chop too.
Cotton Row is what I ended up with. It is essentially a double ender on the water line. The wine glass shaped transom tapers down a blunt end. The bottom shape is flattened out to give it some stability. While it feels tender I can sit in the seat and stay upright without the oars.
While the basic boat is easy to build, the transom will require some woodworking skills. There are full sized patterns included that will give you the outline of the transom you will still have a lot of fitting to do as you build the frame.
Cotton Row was designed to be used with the sliding seat unit shown. Plans are available for the boat or you can purchase the boat and sliding seat plans together at a discounted price.
As with the transom, the rowing unit will require woodworking skills and access to basic woodworking tools.
You can read about building Cotton Row on my Blog. Just search for Cotton Row. I made a lot of blog entries about it and the rower as I designed and built it.
