Grady:

Well, first off, building a boat because you like the look of her is a pretty good place to start.  I mean, who wants a boat that doesn't look right in your own mind?  <;-)  Furthermore, I agree that the Annapolis Wherry is a pretty good-lookin' boat.

As to whether the design is suitable for your stated purposes, the best thing might be to have some direct correspondence with John Harris on that.  John is mighty smart, he is.

Now, I'm no Naval Architect, nor even a navel artichoke, but I do have some thoughts of my own, based on a lifetime (not quite as long as yours) of informal study of boating in general and boat design in particular, plus half-a-lifetime's experience of messing about in boats.  I'll share some thoughts with you here, if you promise to take them with a horse's salt lick worth of salt....

First, I do believe the boat is sufficiently beamy (at 38") to permit fixed-seat rowing with oarlocks on the gun'l's, given appropriately sized oars, at least in theory.  The line drawings on the CLC website do seem to show locations for two sets of oarlocks positioned to allow fixed-seat rowing from the two middle thwarts.  I also spotted a couple of photos in the photo gallery which show oarlocks installed like that, though I've not found a photo of the boat actually being rowed that way.

There might be a couple of issues here to think about, however.

For starters, the boat doesn't seem to have a lot of freeboard through there, and it looks to me like oarlocks mounted on the gun'l's like that would put the oars closer to the water than with the outriggers.  Of course, you'd be working with much shorter oars (6' or 6-1/2', by my calculation), which could somewhat make up for that, hard to say.  If the difference in seat heights of the thwarts relative to the oarlocks vs. sitting on the sliding seat rig (which mounts above the thwarts) relative to the outriggers is about the same, it might work out okay for the oarsman, as long as the seats aren't so low that you can't get the blades clear of the water on the recovery stroke without the grips hitting your legs.  This whole rowing geometry thing can be a tricky business; given the fractional horsepower involved; it doesn't take much of a miscalculation that way to make the difference between a pleasant rowboat and heartbreaking slug which feels like trying to row a bathtub through a sea of molasses.  You'd almost have to mock things up to see how that'd all work out.  Pete Culler's Boats, Oars and Rowing is probably the definitive work on this subject, if you can locate a copy you can afford.

Another thing to think about is the location of the oarsman.  It looks to me like the thwarts are positioned so as to provide the optimal location around the center of the boat for a single oarsman using the sliding seat rig, which will position him (or her) somewhere between those thwarts.  When used for fixed seat rowing without the sliding seat rig, the forward position might place the solo oarsman too far forward for good trim, while the after position might end up being too far aft.  With the oarsman on one thwart (probably the aft one) and a passenger sitting on the other, it might work out, balance wise.  For a solo oarsman, it might possible to get the boat to trim correctly with the oarsman sitting on the aft thwart, with the anchor, water, and other stuff positioned well forward, hard to tell without trying it.  Again, I'm just guessing about this, but long, narrow, slack-bilged boats like this can be touchy about trim.

As for the trolling motor idea, it is certainly possible to drive a nicely-shaped rowing boat like this with a modest electric motor.  We have a trolling motor we've set up to use on our Passagemaker Dinghy, and my son has gotten a lot of use out of that, taking his bride to glide around quietly in pleasant coves and even, on a trip to New Jersey, around in salt marshes.  We shortened the shaft on the motor a bit and upgraded the wiring to a heavier gauge to allow for a longer distance from the battery, which we place right in the middle of the boat secured to the daggerboard case with a short ratchet strap.  The motor clamp is secured on the transom over an old computer mouse pad to isolate vibration from the hull.  It's a great rig for sneaking up on birds.

With two folks aboard in "electric mode", one forward and one aft, she trims out okay.  When operated solo, we have a couple of "portable" seats made out of short planks running fore and aft and bridging the gap between the stern seat and the midship thwart, which allows the motorman/helmsman to sit farther forward for better trim while still reaching the motor's tiller.

To do this with an Annapolis Wherry, you'd probably need to fabricate a tiller extension long enough to allow you to steer from the aftermost of the two middle thwarts to keep her from going down by the stern badly.  With a passenger aboard, the whole business might get a bit tiddly with the passenger sitting right forward with the motorman/helmsman sitting on the aft seat, so I think you'd still want to stick with sitting on the middle thwarts.  You also want to look at total payload of people, motor, battery, anchor, other gear, plus whatever comestibles you mean to carry vs. the rated payload of 350#.  Our Passagemaker Dinghy handles it all well, but she is a much beamer and more burdensome boat all around.  The Annapolis Wherry with all that weight might become a marginal proposition in any sort of chop, and you don't want to push your luck that way.

If the total payload business begins to make you nervous, you might want to look at the Chester Yawl, another fine-looking CLC design, and one after which I have often lusted myself.  She is a much more burdensome (and somewhat heavier) boat, though shorter than the Annapolis Wherry.  With her moveable seats and footrests, she's probably a bit more flexible in arranging her people and load for good trim, and might be a better proposition for fixed-seat rowing all around.  I'd imagine you could use a trolling motor on the transom with the same caveats as noted above.

With any luck, somebody who actually has an Annapolis Wherry and who has actually tried fixed-seat rowing or a trolling motor will chime in here...and probably show that my thinking on this is all wet.  Well, at least I tried to prime the pump...  <;-)

   Thanks, Gramps, for your thoughtful and well reasoned reply.  The wherry is really a one person boat.  The 350 lb. payload pretty much tanks my plan for alternative use.  I'll find some way to get my hands dirty this winter.  Appreciate your suggestions.  Grady    

Sorry if I seemed discouraging, Grady.  I hope you find something suitable.  Again, CLC's Chester Yawl is a very good looking boat, and I can personally attest to the all-around abilities of the Passagemaker Dinghy.

Perhaps what you're looking for would be more like the old Gruman Sport Boat...sort of half canoe, half rowboat, half motorboat.  I once had an occasion to take a ride in a strip-built Robb White "Improved Sport Boat Project" boat, and the owner/builder had high praise for her, the only issue being that he was getting tired of folks pestering him to sell her to them.  See here:

http://www.robbwhite.com/sportboat.html

Sadly, Mr. White is no longer with us, but I think the plans are still available.

Again, I hope you find just the right thing....

.....Michael

Grady, might the Annapolis Tandem be a better choice?

As with Gramps I’m well shy of the savvy a Naval Architect would bring to this discussion, but if the goal is to have displacement enough to go two up on the water, maybe the Tandem would suit your desires? With a 38” beam but nearly 20’ long it’s assuredly more boat than it’s single-seater partner... but with similar lines to appeal to the same aesthetic.

I myself am working ever closer to a’building a CNC design that struck a nerve in me two years ago, their Waterlust Canoe. I’ll probably be 70 (if not 71!) before I get it launched onto a local pond, but what the heck... I’ll be having fun along the way!