A modular sliding-seat rowing shell that is relatively inexpensive and that can be constructed to provide any of three rowing configurations. The shell includes a bow section, a stern section and a center section. The bow and stern sections have the same number (e.g., 2) of rowing stations, and the center section has twice as many (e.g., 4) rowing stations. At each of the rowing stations in all of the sections the beam of the shell is the same (e.g. 22 inches), and the sections are designed and constructed such that the bow section and the stern section may be connected directly to each other to form a shell having one conventional rowing configuration (e.g., a four-oared shell), and the central section can be connected between the bow and stern sections to form a shell having a second conventional rowing configuration (e.g., an eight-oared shell). Two eight-oared configurations may be joined by two jokes to form a shell having a third conventional rowing configuration (e.g., a sixteen-oared training shell).