Rowing and Paddling Craft

Rowing and Paddling Craft for Sale

Rowing and paddling craft cover an enormous range of boats, from traditional rowing tenders and lightweight racing sculls to recreational kayaks and open canoes. Although very different in design and purpose, they all offer a simple and enjoyable way of getting onto the water without the sails, engines or complexity associated with larger boats.

DinghyMart brings together used canoes, kayaks, rowing boats and tenders and sculls offered for sale around the UK.

Choosing the Right Type of Craft

The best choice depends largely on where and how you intend to use it. A stable sit-on-top kayak can be ideal for relaxed coastal exploring, fishing or family use, while a touring or sea kayak is designed to cover greater distances efficiently. Canoes provide plenty of carrying capacity and can work particularly well for two-person paddling, camping trips and exploring rivers and inland waterways.

Traditional rowing boats and tenders offer a completely different experience. They can be used for leisure rowing, harbour duties or as practical tenders for reaching a yacht or mooring. At the performance end of rowing, a racing scull is a highly specialised, lightweight craft designed for speed and efficiency rather than general recreational use.

Canoes

Canoes are generally open craft paddled using a single-bladed paddle. They range from traditional Canadian-style open canoes to modern plastic, composite, folding and inflatable designs. Their carrying capacity makes them particularly useful for recreational paddling, family trips, fishing and touring with camping equipment.

Kayaks

Kayaks come in an exceptionally wide variety of styles including sit-on-top kayaks, touring kayaks, sea kayaks, fishing kayaks, white-water designs and inflatable models. Some prioritise stability and simplicity while others are narrow, efficient craft designed to travel quickly over long distances.

Rowing Boats and Tenders

Rowing boats and tenders range from small traditional dinghies to purpose-built yacht tenders and recreational rowing boats. They can be wooden, GRP, aluminium or inflatable and may be designed purely for rowing or also capable of taking a small outboard motor.

Sculls

Sculls sit at the performance end of the rowing world. Racing shells are long, narrow and extremely lightweight, allowing a rower to achieve impressive speed with very little resistance through the water. They are specialist craft and are best suited to suitable rivers, lakes and established rowing environments.

Buying Used Rowing or Paddling Craft

When buying any used canoe, kayak or rowing boat, check the hull carefully for cracks, repairs, distortion and UV damage. Inspect seats, buoyancy, hatches, deck fittings and attachment points and establish exactly what equipment is included in the sale. With rowing boats and sculls, also inspect the condition of the rowing positions, outriggers, gates and any supplied oars or sculls.

Transport and storage are also important. Even relatively lightweight craft can be long and awkward to move, so consider roof-rack capacity, trailers, storage space and how easily you will be able to launch the boat at your usual stretch of water.