designing a fast rowboat

fixed seat, not sliding

Mike, sorry if I confused you. I'm not going to a sliding seat, but I'm goimg to buy the plans for a drop-in sliding seat unit and build it non- sliding, but adjustable. That way I can adjust everything easily without making a mess of the boat. I'll still be considered to be rowing a fixed-seat, oar-on-gunnel boat, and therefore not have to move up a class. Interestingly, in the last race , as poor as we did, we beat a couple of double sliding seat boats. As you say it's "crew, crew, crew" and the boat is a bit down the list. Thanks for the imput, always appreciated. If I ever go to a slider, I know where to go for advice. Clinton, I'll be looking to see you at the Blackburn one of these days, good luck as you learn your boat. as you learn of races, you can post them on the Hull Lifesaving Museum site so all of us can know about them and increase participation. Jeff

 

The informal race I used to organize in Portland, the "Rowgatta:, is not going on anymore so that will free me up for the 'round Southport Island race out of Boothbay area that always ocurred the same weekend!

Great idea to be able to move your thwart. My next biggest decision is whether to build the boat open, with the traditional rangs fore and aft, and add tabs that allow buoyancy bags to tie off for when I am doing open water rowing, or do I just build in the buoyancy tanks? ANy thoughts.

Clint

 

hi, realy like the idea of fixed seat with riggers, can then get the seat spot on , and can even moved it to suite conditions,

 

Jeff,

I like the idea of a fixed but moveable seat. That will allow you to make adjustments more quickly. Less time modifying the boat = more time on the water working on the crew's strength and rhythm = better times, guaranteed.

 

There is a way to get the adjustable thwart without the complication and ugliness of the sliding seat system. Paul Gartside draw this into his BOB design: it is essentially a shelf that runs fore and aft...about 4-5" out from the side of the hull at thwart height and supported underneath by knees. The shelf has holes in it that accept pins from the thwart...the pins engage the holes in the shelf and lock in the thwart. You could make a number of positions through sea trials and drill the holes in the shelf to suit those thwart positions. It wouldn't be a problem to even plug the holes and make new ones if it did not work out! This is an ingeneous system! I'd like to design and build a Flashboat/extreme Whitehall at some point and can see this system working out. At first I thought this shelf was an eyesore, but I believe it would look fine now and be extremely functional.

Cheers,
Clint

 

Nice idea Clinton, ( Paul Gartside), but to get this absolutely spot on you'd also need to be able to adjust the position of the Oarlocks or Gates , then if need be , you could vary the setup according to the conditions , or perhaps even the number of rowers.

 

Here are some links that some may appreciate.

http://www.devlinboat.com/dcoarling.htm

http://www.slipwaycooperative.co.uk/cornishgig.html

http://intheboatshed.net/2006/12/22/at-last-free-online-designs-for-a-skiff-and-a-racing-punt/

http://www.rowingrigs.com/rwspecs.html

http://www.durhamboat.com/sculls.php

Reading this thread for the first time has been very enjoyable. You are all certifiable lunatics of course.

Regards,

Pericles

 

crazy

lunatics! really Pericles, we see ourselves as sane if a bit ecentric and so many others as over the cliff mentally ( those on this forum excepted ). Cliff, the apppearance of the faering is so neat that it would be a shame to mess it up with flotation compartments. How about foam under the thwarts? the floatation bags would also be a good thing, used only when needed. We're putting in more time at the oars and slowly getting back in shape. Long hard pulls deliver the best results for us but it's taking time to get back into it.

 

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! Stop it pleeeese! You are so close to persuading me that I should take up rowing again that I've tried on my stretchy leotard that has been skulking in the bottom drawer since 1991.

Of course it still fits! It's Lycra! Roll up, roll up, see the brightly coloured blimp!!

That $65 Devlin Oarling with the $800 Scout Rig http://www.rowingrigs.com/srdescr.html including the Dreher Hatchet Package http://www.durhamboat.com/sculls_other.php is mighty, mighty tempting.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/308

Regards,

Perry

 

nice little boat mr lazy don't leave it there too long ,the local scumbags will
have it gone in a flash.it beats me how that little strip of land has remained as it has for so long, as you say "no mans land'' now with council amalgamation things may change eh?
what we need is a co-op boatyard such as we had down south in westernport
fat chance though the enviro-nazis would kill it ........hartley

 

if the ******** want it that bad let em, but seeing as i ,m the only rower in this plastic place, wot would they do with my boat, mind you some hoons may smash it, but nothing fazes me
there are some dragon boat people here and one or two canoists

 

all work and no play

Checking back in, Spring is the busy time in my work and little gets done with the boating. Still, I'll continue accumulating material for the rowing kayak and work at it as I have a chance. We're rowing the Nordfjiord and slowly getting the hang of keeping it moving along well. I've roughed out a set of 8' 11" wooden oars and we'll try them out Sunday to see if they feel better suited to the boat. When does Clints boat get launched? I'm going crazy to hear how it rows. When we row Sunday, we'll take along some fishing gear and see if we can catch some early Striped Bass up in the North River. Rowing speed is perfect trolling speed and, who knows, we might get lucky.

 

the latest

Rangs being made...decided these would be too fun to make and much prettier than flotation compartments.

I am excited to float the hull within a week or two to get the CF of the hull and then decide where to put my big butt and how far aft of the seat the oarlocks go (pictured, by Shaw and Tenney). The S & T head is adamant that the locks shouldn't be more than 10" aft of the aft edge of seat. We'll see.

Cheers,
Clint

 

Clinton, getting there , well done so far, exciting times ahead . I have a book by RD Culler,, Boats , Oars , and Rowing, he seemed to know a thing or three about rowing and row boats,, , he mentions that when he learned the trade the standard thwart was 8 inches wide and the Oarlock was set back 12 inches from the aft edge of the thwart. But also says that many fast working Yawls and Gigs of the past ( I guess that was quite long ago) had thwarts of only 6 1/2 to 7 inches , less wood to step over, and nice to hook your butt on. I have seen several plans where the oarlock was 10 inch aft of the aft edge of the thwart.

 

Gig rowing in Cornwall this weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/gig_rowing/

Thousands of people are in the Isles of Scilly for the annual World Pilot Gig Championships.

The event, which doubles the population of the islands, has attracted a record number of entries this year.

There are 111 teams competing from around the world in a variety of classes, including crews from the Netherlands and the US.

The Veterans titles went to Falmouth Women's Vets in Irene Two and Caradon Men's Vets in Millers' Daughter.

Hilary Moll, who travelled to the Scillies from Plymouth, Massachusetts, to row with team members in the gig Saquish, said she was there to learn.

Harbour navigation

"We're used to doing very well, but here it'll be a real learning experience," she told BBC News.

"We feel like students and we're here to watch the teachers."