Spend some time on this site and you will get a feel what a top athlete in a fast boat can do in real conditions over a significant distance.
http://surfskiracing.org/

: I found this interesting web page that calculates the maximum speed
: for a rower.
: http://www.sciencebits.com/rowers

: It's a bit disconcerting that the page discusses 'rower boats',
: I don't understand all of the math, but the sum of it is that over
: 2000 meters the minimum time is 400 seconds which is 5 m/s or
: 9.7 knots.

: I believe I calculated the winners of the kayaking (not rowing)
: events at the Beijing Olympics 2008, was about 12 knots.

: Why I thought it worth sharing is that a lot of it is different
: from most of the analysis of hull speeds, etc... that I've seen.

: always,
: Will N