ROWING FOR PLEASURE: Double Ender Down Under

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Double Ender Down Under

I would never dare alter a design by someone clearly much more capable, experienced and talented than I am, especially when that person is John Welsford, boat designer supreme. But Peter Murton in Nelson, New Zealand, has bravely done just that.

He decided John's elegant rowing boat Joansa would make an even more elegant double ender, so he simply went ahead and built it. He writes:

"I just used the bow sections of John's drawings. The centre frame was the center of the boat. Next time I would make two centre frames and space them 600mm apart so you end up with a boat about 5.3m long. She is a lot lighter without the transom at about 75lb and still rows very well.
Our next boat is going to be a double ended Whitehall, 17ft long with sliding seat and outriggers."
The result is a lovely looking boat, and it probably goes a bit faster without the transom as well as being lighter.

2 comments:

Anders Eliasson said...: Its a beautifull boat. I prefer it over the Joansa.
IMO, there´ll be any problems if you do like this builder, repeating the bow. Canoes arebuilt like that. Peapods as well and many classical rowing crafts.; 28 September 2011 at 09:20
Clint Chase said...: That was clever. We have St Lawrence River Skiffs here that are similar. Here is one under construction at WoodenBoat.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwctgBj

Also there is Drake Rowboat which is assymmetric fore and aft. You can get a little higher prismatic out of this and a little more speed potential.

Drake has appeared in Rowing for Pleasure.

http://clintchaseboatbuilder.com/rowboats.html; 28 September 2011 at 13:08