Jim Michalak's RB42 (Row Boat for Two)

My wife Elizabeth likes rowing. For that matter second to sailing I like rowing too. Rowing solo is nice but rowing in tandem is just that much more fun and both of us can get exercise at the same time. What we wanted was a fixed seat rowboat that had more performance than Little Gem but still had a flat bottom allowing easy dry foot beaching in our shallow lakes. I also intend to use the boat for overnight rowing cruises with my son so I asked Jim to design in some storage compartments for our camping gear. The boat has a sharp wave-cutting bow that works very well. There is also a fixed skeg for directional stability. I found that I had the increase the depth of the skeg by an inch from what was drawn to get the boat to track well. With RB42 if Liz or I wish to take a rest from rowing the other can keep on going while one of us ships our oars. This is not as easy in our canoe. The advantage of RB42 over a canoe is even more pronounced in windy conditions, as it is much easier for one to manage RB42 solo when one on the paddlers wants to take a rest. The boat rows also rows well solo with hardly any draft. I trailer the RB42, with 19-foot length I would not call this boat a car topper. We have christened our boat Pour Deux. Thanks for another great design Jim! Click on Jim's name to get to Jim Michalak's site.

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