Cherry Blossoms

While winter storms raged, four sets of oars emerged from the Doryman boatyard. Two sets of sweeps were refurbished and two were new.

I'd like to call attention to buttons, otherwise known as collars. I'm not in the habit of using buttons on my oars, so they are new to me.
Rowing racers call them collars and they are used for positioning the oars. Mere mortals install buttons on the upper end of the chaffing leathers to keep the oars from sliding though the oarlock and out to sea.

The oars pictured here are to be used for two very different boats, by a person accustomed to using buttons for oar positioning. Thus, you will notice two buttons per oar. These oars are also indexed, which means they have at least two flat surfaces, in the pulling and return positions, to facilitate feathering.
As I said, I've rowed for many years without these aids, but was informed by a competitive rower a couple years back that I was no rower at all if my oars had no collars.

I did not wish to be left out of my favorite activity, so here you see the result: chaffing protection and buttons made of leather. You can purchase these items made of plastic but they cost a small fortune and have no soul.

A very good dissertation on oar design can be found by my friend Tom, at Grapeview Point Boat Works.

Now that spring has arrived, I can be found out in the yard under the cherry tree, sanding and scraping the flat iron skiff, Stewball.


Here we see Stewball last spring, in her "before" condition.

To those who claim a fiberglass boat will outlast a wood one, I present exhibit #1. Stewball is 75 years young, showing her age with grace.
Her hull has been repainted with oil based enamel and her interior stripped of paint. The process of oiling the dry planks has begun. A certain amount of patina will remain of necessity, weathered wood can stain very deep.

One of my favorite designers, Captain Pete Culler, dictated that the interior of a cross-planked bottom should not be oiled or painted. I think in this case, I will follow his advice and leave the pine boards bare.

The cherry blossoms in the photos are a bonus. It did no good to sweep them out - by the time the camera was ready, they'd been replaced.

Stewball will be on the water in a couple weeks. Please stay tuned.

Making Spoon Oars

By John Delapp

John Delapp published a great article on making efficient oars simply, in the Winter/1990 edition of the Ash Breeze, the quarterly journal of the Traditional Small Craft Assoc..
His spoon shaped design has a shaft and loom made of spruce with a paddle made of 4-5mm plywood. I was introduced to an example of this oar last fall, made for Chelcie Liu and what a beautiful, simple, lightweight work of art!






Here is Chelcie with his fine set of spoon oars. Please note the attractive protective leathers.








I was given some spruce off-cuts last week that will be perfect for a set of these oars, which will compliment the fixed seat rowing scull (above) that came out of my shop this winter.







The target weight for this set is 2 1/2 pounds, which John says coaches recommend for racing sculls, even lighter for smaller rowers. The spoon design has proven to be the most efficient and allows the blade of the oar to be made smaller and lighter than a comparable flat blade.

I've never owned a pair of spoon oars, but will very soon - as soon as I get out in the shop and get to work! John claims that it should take 6-8 hours to build this set.

The excellent Ash Breeze quarterly is another great reason to join the Traditional Small Craft Association.

Thanks to my friends Martin and Chelcie for bringing these plans to my attention.




I've spent much more time and materials to make graceful oars.






These stand close comparison with the best of them. At a fraction of the cost.



Post Script: Chelcie has published an article about building these oars and provides PDF files of the plans on the Puget Sound TSCA site.