Thank you for your very kind words and meaningful feedback! Now that we got the first GWJ submission out, others will come soon-ish if the time allows :)
As for the steering, it was inspired by real world and supposed to match how the rowing boat works. Check this video for reference:
It is indeed possible to row forward - i.e. the way you are facing, it’s called “push stroke” - but it is very cumbersome and usually less efficient. I also didn’t have sufficient time to animate it correctly so I made a creative decision to omit it :)
See you around & Cheers!