Some here may recall my intent to get a Porta-Bote, and make it
possible to use sculling oars instead of the typical dinghy sticks...

It arrived on time, in good shape. Today I opened the box.

Well, the opening and assembly was entirely without moment. Other than

looking for an "R" in the cupholder for the rear seat as specified in
the
instructions (evidently meant for bigger botes), everything went in/on
with
no excitment. Probably didn't take me 10 minutes, even with the oops
on the
seat identity.

As I'd not had one in my sights, I was unaware of the oarlock receiver
being
a square tube with a nylon insert, angled in to miss the coaming. I'm
going
to have to ponder that for a bit, about the sculling conversion, as I'd

envisioned a casting of a tube on a plate. The blind access to the
inside
of the square tube (not at all impossible, just different than I'd
anticipated) will have me scratching my head a bit about how I want to
proceed for sculling conversion. I expect the force I'd put on the
receiver
would wear out the nylon in short order, so perhaps not using that
assembly
at all would be advised. Though the bolt itself wouldn't turn in a
sculling
oarlock, the 1.5" or so top-to-bottom length would take a lot of
torque, and
squish the nylon out in short order, I believe. Of course, as before,
I'd
expected to have to use a larger, longer plate to distribute the torque
over
a longer range (such as maybe 4-6" fore-aft - the height is of no
moment).

What I need is a 1/2" ID tube immobile to a plate. It could be SS or
aluminum (all of it). Short of a custom weld-up, anyone got any ideas
on
how to do that?

An aha moment! I need an aluminum or SS angle. Rereading the above, I

recalled how the Little River shells I used to deliver mounted theirs.
Their pivots are SS carriage bolts, with a wobble plate (flat on top
with 4
screws controlling the angle it sits) securing the round head in a
dished
rigger, allowing infinite rotational (seen from the top of the oarlock)

adjustment to about 8 degrees all around. For my purposes, that's
unnecessary. The oarlock has adjustment washers allowing one to set
the
height; those will allow me to clear the coaming. I'll just bolt that
sucker
on to the 1/2" hole I made in the angle. I'll make it easy (put a
wrench in
the bote bag?) to remove so I can collapse the bote, as it would stick
up
into the bottom crease if left on. Off I go to the scrapyard! Stay
tuned to
this channel for developments and pictures.

Meanwhile, without having received any notice of shipping, the shipper
called me on the appointed day for arrival, and it arrived with no
damage
other than a slight surface rip on the plastic bag. As it is, since I
have
the pearl, likely scratches won't show, anyway.

10 out of 10 for Porta-Bote customer service from this quarter!

L8R

Skip
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Hi Skip;

I skimmed over your previous post. I appologize if I missed this part.
Why do you want to scull your boat instead of using two oars a oaring?
Bob

"OK, Skip, usually you're a model of clarity, but I am getting a little
confused by how you actually want to mod out a PortaBote.

Do you want to retrofit angled supports to a PortaBote, or just put in
beefier oarlocks and (reaching for faulty memory...) "thole pins" in
order to have longer, more mechanically efficient oars?

Hoping I'm not adding to the confuzzlement...

R"

Hi, Rhys, and group(s),

My apologies for the crummy quoting - and I don't know how this
threads, either, as I'm on the boat and thus not able to use my
news/email client.

Your characterizations of rowing/sculling are correct, except that when
one person is rowing, their oars are "sculls" and are ~10' long. I
used to row one of those 12" wide, 4" freeboard things with the oars
I'm going to use. When multiples of 2 are rowing with single oars,
each, those are sweeps, and are ~12' long, with correspondingly larger
blade area.

I also apologize for the lack of clarity. Most, I think, of that,
comes from those who aren't familiar with the PortaBote (and
secondarily, of course, with sliding seat competitive rowing, done by
many more than English University students, but still a niche sport -
Hi, DB! Congrats to your son!). I'd originally envisioned an oarlock
receiver similar to what I've seen on aluminum pointy-bow boats - a
cast plate with a lump in it which is the hole down which you stick the
pin. Not the case in the PB, so I had to figure out something else to
mount:

A standard rowing-team oarlock, which sits on a pin at the back of it
(well, actually forward, but as you look at it sitting there) is what I
needed to have to use my oars.

Those have opening bails at the top, and the place you put the oar is
basically rectangular, to facilitate feathering, and properly orienting
on stroke, the three-sides-flat shaft (done by a plastic sleeve, with
an adjustable collar to control length). Feathered, at rest on the
water, the three flat sides of the sleeve sit in this rectangular thing
- |_| - sort of, with something hinged at the pin side at the top
which you unscrew to lift away to install or remove the oar, and the
space is just enough to allow the oar to turn without binding. Thole
pins, characterized above, are typically found on older wooden (or
replica) rowboats, made of wood, like the diagram and open at the top.
Put the oar in there, and have at it; ship them by just flipping them
out when you land.

So, I wanted to make the bote capable of using these (oarlocks, not
thole pins), so I could use the longer sculls (what a two-to-a-rower
oars are called, thus some potential confusion vs a gondolier's much
longer sweep for sculling).

Sitting in the boat, I also noted that - based on where the factory
pivot is - it's made for much shorter and shorter-armed folks, which,
happily, will allow me to put my .25x1.5x6 angle aluminum mount just
aft of the originals, leaving the originals in place. Looking at them
after I had them cut makes me nervous that I don't have long enough
leverage to avoid deforming (causing my mounting rivets or bolts,
whichever I end up with) the holes I'll have to drill in the plastic to
attach them. However, if it turns out I do, it's a simple matter to
get another chunk cut longer and do it again.

I'm catching grief from home that this isn't getting our (bigger) boat
in the water, despite my desire to use this for my heart exercise, so
the rest of it will have to wait until a later time. However, when
it's done, there will be pictures in the gallery and a report on how it
did. Changing back and forth to factory oars will also be easy as I'll
have left the original installed. If it turns out I'm not able to
achieve a marked improvement, I'll uninstall it, as carrying the sculls
and having to take out the oarlocks (not a big process, but not as
simple as just getting in the boat, either, as is the factory case),
necessitated if I want to be able to fold it up for passage, is not
worth it if that advantage isn't realized.

I hope this added the clarity missing :{))

Current boat project has me trying to make a clear path for water from
bow to under-engine pan bilge, complicated by position of tanks right
behind the bulkhead I'd have to drill through. MANY other projects,
too; chronicles in the gallery...

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain