Oarlocks on top of side airboxes

I'm building a little rowboat and I'm wondering how to position the oarlock sockets.

It's a rectangular boat with 4" wide side airboxes for floatation. I'll probably be use bolger thole-pin-style oarlocks (i.e. bolts with a string tied around them), but I'll still be running the bolts through traditional oarlock sockets just in case I want to switch back to oarlocks at some point.

Question I have is: it seems like if I just plop the oarlock sockets in the middle of the airbox the oars will rub on the gunnels quite a bit. I was imagining bolting perhaps a foot long section of maybe 1.5" x 1.5" wood (maybe white oak with the corners rounded down) to the top of the airbox and installing the socket into that to lift the socket up off the airbox a bit and give some clearance for the oars.

Anyone ever done anything like this?

Here's the boat as of yesterday. It's upside-down, you're looking at the bow right before the bow transom got installed. This is gust to give a feel for the size of the airboxes. The boat is 12' x 4' overall.



Apologies for the HUGE picture, that's just what I've got.

 

Thole pins usually have a wooden block under where the oar works on. Hard wood is commonly used because there is a lot of wear.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7527/1860/1600/Corme 05 131.jpg

 

Ahh!
Exactly what I was looking for - thanks gonzo.

I think a little chunk of white oak will do the trick.

 

PS
I love that tiny little square boat on the right side of the picture.