Okay, so it looks like having all of the rows towards the front of the ship is an actual thing. That makes is a bit easier. I'll probably stick the cabin at the aft (and have it have recessed into the deck, so the little aft castle is only raised 4ft or so over the main deck), and have the mast in the middle of the ship.

The way I wrote it up, I made it so that there are places to attach the rowing seats, but they can be stored in a little hold under a hatch on the deck (with the anchor, oars, and any cargo) so you don't have them in the way the whole rest of the time. Most of the time you'll be using the sail rather than the oars anyway, since it's going to be faster. If you're an adventuring party you may not even have enough people to man the oars. The folding boat goes all the way back to 1e where having a bunch of hirelings to do stuff like that was normal, and isn't going to happen as often in 5e.

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