designing a fast rowboat

I was curious about his original boat (as the only one reputedly to have beaten Paul Neil in his Guideboat), found this pic somewhere (that's supposed to be Aborn in foreground), and only just now noticed that he seems to have small outriggers. But they also seem damm close to being on the gunwale. Would this puts him in a different competition class from Neil, or would this slide at the Blackburn? I'm curious.

 

Its a good question - when does a really wide gunwale become an out rigger ? Or how long does it have to be to not be an out rigger?
On the Aero - beyond short and fat you will have to get the opinion of one of the senior members.
On the sliding seat boats one oarlock is higher than the other but not much - maybe half an inch?. Its not really noticeable , its just enough so that one hand nestles into ( onto ) the wrist of the other.. But if you have your hands backwards and the blades are the same depth - the boat will be leaning one way or the other. On Maas boats there are usually some spacers so that you can adjust the oarlock height ( on the water ) to your personal preference and water conditions. The spacers float - you know how I know this. - N

 

Skinny flat water sliding seat boats set the oarlock of the higher hand about 1/2 inch,, say 12 mm to 20mm , 3/4 inch , higher.. that's about the international standard
and most Countries have a standard as to which hand is the higher ,, most often seems to be the left hand.
the reason for a standard is to make sure that all the boats can be used by all rowers..
of course some rowers with their own boats like to be otherwise.

 

I know it's perfectly possible to row like that. I just prefer not to. The bold bit is something I find particularly annoying. I can feel it all the time, even when used to it. It just bugs me. I don't mind having one handle a bit higher, but as soon as there's enough overlap to require pulling one handle ahead of the other I get pissed off.

 

If it's not a big overlap it only comes into play in the return when the oars are parallel to the water.

 

Sure, but in that case you're talking about oars that have little or no overlap on the pull, which is what I said I preferred anyway.

 

Most fine boats use asymetrical height adjustment on the gates the pivot pin being quite a bit longer than the gate, its adjusted by adding or moving a stack of spacer washers, Also snap in height adjusters. It works well once its set up. These modern gates work well but i still prefer open topped rowlocks in a boat to be used on tidal waters. Now if there were decent offset square pattern open topped rowlocks available in iron or stainless steel.....
The only ones i have seen over here were made of bronze & were too light to be of any real use without bending.

 

Hi Keith; now that is an interesting point. Having always rowed with " modern gates" and having leaned on them fairly hard for stability at different times and having had them come open a few times when I had not tightened them enough ( this usually is followed me swimming ) , I have often wondered about open topped oarlocks. Why do you prefer them.

 

Its not so much a performance issue as a boat handling one, modern gates are lovely to row with & on a very tippy shell the oars being locked in is normal even essential to keep the thing upright.
On a traditional boat being able to unship the oars easily & quickly when coming alongside is an advantage. The club i used to be involved with uses modern gates & oars on what are very traditional shaped Gigs, the temptation for beginners in fact most of the members is to run the oar in across the boat when coming in at the end of a row (they never listen), very bad practice as it leaves the blades sticking out, great when you are coming into a jetty or tight place in a running tide. Broken oars are usually the result!

 

I'd agree with this for sliding seat boats, where the oarlocks are so far outboard that you can't really reach them. Makes it very difficult to get the oar out of the way if the gates are closed. Not such a worry if you happened (for whatever reason) to like that style of oarlock in a more accessible location.

Re the other offset square types: they never seem to be fixed post, and as a result lose the pitch control as soon as they wear a bit. Sort of defeats the purpose of them IMHO. I can't see the point of offset, square backed oarlocks unless they are on a fixed post.

 

I just dug out a very old set of four galvanised iron open topped gates, dont know where they came from & certainly long out of production, they are made with a hollow bore to go over a captive fixed pin. Be interesting to try them out.
The main reason for using square backed gates is if your are using D sectioned oars like most secondhand racing sculls are, you get a real positive action on feathering, round loom oars no point.

 

Well yes, they are good for feathering, but even when you aren't feathering the accurate pitch control* is a real bonus on a narrow boat. That's fine with a fixed pin, but with a pin that's cast as part of the oarlock the pitch control goes out the door as soon as there is a bit of wear, and this style tends to wear faster than fixed pins too.

* I am assuming flat backed oar looms of course.

 

Ok ,
Flat water racing boats use a plastic gate with a hollow section where the thole pin goes in, the hollow is some what larger than the (steel) thole pin, and at the top and bottom there is a space for a washer with and "off center"" hole for the thole pin to go through,, Then different washers with different offset holes are used to set the the "rake " of the oarlock or gate.
Now if someone would mold an oarlock out of gunmetal or whatever.more or less the same as the plastic one used by skinny boats, there would be no need for the top brace.
But now we are talking quite a few $'s.

 

I believe Whitehall Rowing in Vancouver offers what you are describing, in a tough nylon material. Price on just the oarlocks and pins isn't bad.

http://store.whitehallrow.com/accessories/category/54/rowboat-accessories-and-gear/outriggers

I use their bronze folding outriggers and open locks on my Herreshoff 17 with 8' 9" spoon blade oars with D shaped looms. It's well made stuff, no flex or slop when rowing & I doubt I'll ever break them.

 

back to oar on gunnel

That is Jon aborn in the foreground in the picture taken at the essex River Racr in 2010. It is sort of a wide gunnel., about 3" no one takes notice of it. On our Nordfiord, the rear locks are on gunnel extrensions about 2" wide to even out the spread station to station. This seems to fly at any race I do