Jim Willemin wrote:

Light is good, but balanced is better. My preference by far is wood;
it floats, it has great strength for its weight, and is quiet. Also,
wooden oars have a tapered shaft, improving the balance. I made some
9 foot oars over the winter; the balance point is about a foot and a
half outboard of the oarlock, and at under 4 pounds each they are
real easy to use. When you go to buy oars, check where the balance
point is - the farther away from the oarlock, the harder you have to
work on the recovery part of the stroke. Here's another point -
traditional oars have fairly narrow blades - 4 or 5 inches tops. The
wider the blade, the harder it is to pull through the water and the
greater the air resistance on the recovery. If you're going to row a
racing shell 1000 meters, then big fat blades are great. If you're
going to row a skiff several miles against even a fresh breeze, big
blades are gonna kill you. The narrow blade traditional oar evolved
to suit normal guys rowing all day in all weathers (think coastal
fishermen or Grand Banks dories). So if you are depending on the
oars to get you home when the motors go belly-up, think long,
balanced, narrow blades. Remember you may have to row several miles.

Another point - on some fine, calm, sunny day it might be a good idea
just to go for a row for a couple of miles, so you know what problems
may arise and have some experience before it becomes critical. If
your buddies give you grief, throw a lure over the side and troll...

Thanks. I'll check out wooden oars. I'll do as you suggested and be
thinking long, balanced, narrow blade oars.