What gets you up on the morning? Is it sculling?
Rowing and sculling are all year round sports if you live in a temperate climate such as we are lucky to have in the UK. I know that in continents the winters are often much more harsh and temperatures more extreme so it is not always possible to get out on the water.
But if you can, then this is what you should be doing. Sculling.
You don't have to take undue risks. When you are a sculler you take responsibility for your own actions. You make your own judgements about risk and if you judge the risks to be too high then you do not go out on the water. Or you take out a more stable boat. Or whatever.
But if you want to be an Olympic weight lifter you would not go sculling, would you? So why, if you want to be an Olympic sculler, would you lift heavy weights? Or do anything other than go sculling, except at a low level of intensity for recreation and active recovery.
Chris Boardman, Olympic Gold medal cyclist, said he did his active recovery on the couch!
You cannot improve your leg strength by training just with your arms. You cannot build endurance by training only for speed. Training has to be specific and the most specific training activity for sculling is sculling!
It gets even more specific than that. Training in the same boat type that you will race in. Training in the same crew that you will race with. Specificity is the name of the game.