Odyssey 180 Touring Rowboat

The Odyssey 180 is an updated version of the Harbor Cruiser 18 featured in our movie "Rowboats for Touring".

This 18 ft. boat fills the need for an efficient doubles touring rowboat. It is designed for use with one or two FrontRower forward facing rowing system (purchased separately).  It can also be rowed solo or solo with a passenger.

This boat is efficient at the power level two rowers can generate over long periods of time.  Two rowers can cruise at 5-½ mph without breathing hard.  With a little more effort the boat will move at its hull speed (6-½ mph), and it can sprint at 7-½ mph.

Above the waterline, the Odyssey 180 has sufficient freeboard to handle the chop, wakes, and winds that we have come to expect in our home waters of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

The Odyssey 180 is a wooden rowboat using stitch-and-glue construction.  The planking is 4mm okoume marine plywood.  The exterior is sheathed with fiberglass cloth.  The entire boat is epoxy encapsulated, then painted and/or varnished.  The gunwales and hardwood parts are solid cherry to match the FrontRower rowing system.  A matching cherry passenger seat is available.

Some of the features included in this design are:

• Reversing chine curve.  The chine line (where the two side planks come together) bends downward toward the bow.  This relieves compound bending in the planks, making it easy to fit them together smoothly.  It also adds visual interest, making it both graceful and unusual.

• Easy to make "sine-wave" splices rather than traditional scarph joints.  For amateur builders these are easier to make, stronger and bend more evenly than traditional scarph joints.

• Optional extra floatation laminated into the bottom plank.  1/2 inch of cell core material sandwiched between two layers of plywood adds stiffness and 44 pounds of extra buoyancy right where it does the most good (and does not interfere with the clean interior design).

Odyssey 180

You can build the Odyssey 180 yourself from a kit or plans. Or we can build one for you.