About the "powerful" oars...
I didn't so much get them as had them. However, any standard rowing
oar is not a great deal more efficient than a 1x6 other than it's a bit
lighter.
When I was delivering rowing stuff for Little River a few times, I
would teach the new owners how to row. Most of them had never rowed
anything other than an aluminum rowboat, or, sometimes, a kayak.
Because they don't usually give any thought to it, the usual motion of
the blade is relatively round - or at best elliptical. Some of that's
because the oar is so inefficient, they make it work somewhat like a
canoe paddle - deep and as straight back as possible.
From an efficiency standard, that is awful, so I had to un-teach every
student who'd not sculled before. The shape of my oars is with a scoop,
to push the water before it, not let it slide off the end, and with a
more concentrated area. So much for that part of the efficiency.
For the other, the shorter stroke you can take, meaning the closer to
perpendicular to the boat, the more effective it is, not using the
force to affect the side of the boat, but instead provide drive.
Likewise, the closer to parallel to the water you can get, while still
maintaining a position of the handle so as to end in your gut, the more
effective you'll be at tranmitting muscle into forward motion.
So, instead of a 7' oar which you have to aim at, perhaps, a 40* angle
to get any bite and to bury the blade, with a 10', with the blade area
only about a foot of the length, you can keep the shaft much more
parallel. The blade just under the water is the most efficient, and
easiest to get out...
The shape of the collar area allows easy "set" in a drive position - it
literally clicks into place, assuring that it's up-and-down oriented.
Then you get it out at the end, and rotate it 90* to recover, placing
it parallel to (and right next to, not 3' above!) the water, so as to
have as little wind resistance as possible.
Thus endeth the lesson.
I'm going to have to modify my oarlock setup to take the stress of more
effort. Not having it in hand yet, I can only go on reports that the
existing oarlock receiver is the proper size for the bolt which will be
my fulcrum. However, I expect to remove that casting plate and attach
it to a much larger piece of aluminum, so as to spread the stress
(rotational, from my pull - properly rowed, there won't be yaw or roll,
in aircraft terms, of the plate).
So, back to the premise, the long oars are for efficiency. And, as
others have noted, for the fun of rowing. I have no illusions that a
10' portabote will plane under my hands, but I'd bet I could move it
right along, while getting the daily workout my heart is now
prescribed, whether I wanted to (obviously I did, or I'd have not
ordered it before knowing of my condition) or not.
And, in truth, other than as curiosity items, the risk of having my
oars stolen is probably pretty small. But I'd sure be up a creek
without a paddle if they were!
The bote's scheduled for arrival today. I'll take pix of the
modifications and put them in my gallery. Right now I'm trying to
resolve the lack of flow-through (limber holes) in my mastwell. Those
pix will be up in a few days, too.
L8R
Skip
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her
"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely
nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing,
messing-about-in-boats; messing about in boats-or *with* boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."