James,

You can mount oarlocks directly on your gunnels, and use a set of short oars
with some sort of middle seat (it can even be as simple as a folding stool).
There are much more complicated ways of more efficiently rowing a canoe too.
One is a sliding seat, with outrigger oar locks, and some pretty nice oars
that will set you back about the price of a new canoe. For that, you will
get significantly more speed and comfort. You can also build something in.

The use of oars will dramatically increase canoe speed. Using the simple
gunnel mounted locks mounted so that I could row facing rearward off the
front seat, I recall a trip in which I used oars to power through about 25
miles of swampy river in about 5 1/2 hours (thus camping at a much more
attractive falls further on instead of a hummock in the bog, and keeping the
bug factor low). That was consistently pretty close to hull speed on the
20' White we were in. There is no way I could have done that with a paddle.

Eric

"James" wrote in message
...
My physician has suggested I get into rowing and I really dont want an
unstable shell and I also cant spend $2,000 for a new boat. I have a nice
Kevlar canoe and have been told you can drop in a rowing set up.

Has anyone rowed a canoe - is it hokey?

Konnie