Dave,

I row an 18' pulling boat. I used to race it and I have done plenty of
medium distance (10+ miles) and some long distance rowing.

My boat is 42" wide at the widest point. I have two sets of oars a pair of
8' Shaw and Tenny spoons and a pair of 9' Milton Fancy dory oars.

Longer oars are like the higher gears on a bicycle. They give you more
leverage and greater pull through the water. I can make my boat go faster
with the 9' oars than with the 8' oars.

But there is a second factor the hull speed of the boat. The 9' oars push
the boat up over the hull speed and I get a bigger wave without much gain in
speed. I also get tired out faster.

The 8' Shaw and Tenny's push the boat almost as fast as the 9' footers but I
can go much farther. When I used to race I trained with the 9' footers and
raced with the 8s unless it was a short race.

The hull speed on your 8 footer is going to be lots slower than on my 18'
footer so I doubt you need 8 foot oars to hit it.

I'm going to guess that 6' would be a bit better but part of that depends on
how high your seat is and how much freeboard you have. If you want rowing
to be easy but not neccissarily as fast go down to 5'6". Either way there
will not be a lot of difference.

Beware the math on the Shaw and Tenny site. Its written for boats that were
designed to row and is not completely applicable to modern dinghys though it
is can be helpful.

Thier oars are wonderful.

Good luck.


"Dave" wrote in message
...
Gotta buy some new oars for a newly acquired dinghy. The question is what
size. Dinghy is an 8' Atlantic. I'd guess the beam must be about 54,"
though
it seems wider when I throw it on the car top. So do I need 5 1/2 ft.
oars,
or 6'?

Dave
S/V Good Fortune
CS27



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