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Comment by matthewmcg | Hacker News Reader

It's no coincidence that other human-powered transport mechanisms (aircraft, boats, etc.) commonly use pedals for the drivetrain. It's a lightweight way to use the body's strongest muscles, especially when high power is critical.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacCready_Gossamer_Condor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacCready_Gossamer_Albatross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Daedalus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVelo_Atlas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocycle

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I wouldn't say it's common at all in boats. The two main human-powered boats are canoes and kayaks, and both use the arms, not the legs. There's also rowboats, which again use the arms. Pedal-powered kayaks do exist, but are rare.

It would make more sense to use the legs, but it's a much bigger engineering challenge than making a simple paddle and a boat that floats with no holes in the bottom.

Rowing is not solely an arm mechanism but his actually driven by the legs

As a rower myself I wanted to type the same correction initially, but then realized that the parent comment is probably referring to a rowboat rather than a racing shell. No sliding seat, no leg drive.

Rowing in a real rowboat has little to do with the legs: the seat is fixed. It has a lot to do with the back, however.

"Rowing machines" have very little to do with real rowboats. Real rowboats don't have sliding seats.

Sliding seats are used for competitive rowing. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowing_(sport)#Technique

When normal people talk about a "rowboat", this is what they're referring to:

https://images.app.goo.gl/UsSUQCWLLNPmkDf39

That's certainly true--oars are by far the most common configuration for human powered boats. I was thinking more about human powered boats that set speed records, e.g. the Decavitator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decavitator

A lot of this might just be because Mark Drela, who was involved in the design of several of the aircraft and boats on this list, is a cyclist.

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