designing a fast rowboat

Oar collars...I am fabricating a set out of solid nylon stock. A ring turned up on lathe with a groove in middle for twine. Ring will be split in half and seized to leathers with twine.

I use the leather stitch method on Paul Gartside's website.
http://www.gartsideboats.com/leather.php

What have other done?

Clint

 

I do not understand exactly what you mean.

Myself i have always used an extremely low tech method.

Take a clorox bottle or other made of same material and cut to end up with a sheet of plastic. Use this as leather. It is free and needs no lubrication. It is thin but is so slippery that it actually lasts a surprising amount of time. Replace as necessary. Usually lasts one year.

As for the collar i do not bother with that since i use the norwegian oar stock design.

 

For leathers I have used heavy leather sewn on as per Pete culler and also heavy heat shrink tube available from fine boat suppliers , as for buttons the last set of sweeps i did had collars made from heavy conveyor belting about 5/16" thick & 1 1/4" wide cut with a long scarf & wrapped round the loom i used contact adhesive to stick the lot together with a couple of tacks to hold the ends. these worked quite well with some heavy use.
Regrding oars, i have found that the mainstream fine boat clubs have a never ending arms race of equipment which means they are constantly buying new oars. The old out of date stuff gets pushed to the back of the rack. Effectively this means that a blade that maybe cost two hundred pounds new is worth twenty five, five years down the line. This has allowed our club to fit out with good condition carbon fibre oars for around £25 each.
There are still lots of clubs with stocks of hollow wooden macon sculling blades, i have heard of these having their blades cut of as trophies & the rest being put on a bonfire. To me this is an absolute crime!
Recently we bought eight pairs from a club up on the thames and they are lovely hollow Suttons blades in perfect condition we paid £30 a pair and i doubt you could even buy the wood to make them for that.

 

oars etc.

I'm going to try contacting some of the universities aroud here to see if I cn Snag four oars and the correct oarlocks to use them. The carbon fiber oars are feather light and must be a joy to use. The Nordlys is almost ready to go, a couple of coats of paint and I'll call her done. A trial row may be in order this Sunday, weather permitting. I've got 8' solid shaft wood oars that I worked down a lot to lighten them then steamed them to get a curved blade. A coat of fiberglass set in epoxy gives them plenty of strength. Will keep you posted with the results my gps reports to me

 

fame

Clint, got my new copy of wooden boat and low and behold, a familar face and the Drake also. Congrats!

 

rowing

Got the Nordlys out for a short row on Duxbury Bay Sunday afternoon. It was spitting rain with a light breeze and 6" chop. I was able to get her up to 5.4 knots on my GPS. 4 knots is a breeze. Immediate observation revealed that the thwart is too high in relationship to the oarlocks, but positioned the right distance from them. The oars (8') are about 4"too short, the differance being needed on the inboard end to lessen the efort to pull the oars. Biggest deficiency: me. Damn,am I out of shape! Lots of hours needed to flog this old body back into any kind of competitive shape. Am hoping to get up to the North Shore and Maine this year for acouple of races. looking t omeet Clint and see is Drake

 

Jeff, Going to Essex this weekend? I plan to be there, even though it is mothers day. I may be in the doghouse for that.

I'll post shots of my oar collars, they came out pretty good.

I finally got out on the water once when the wind was less than 15kts...it was delightful. She feels fast...I keep covering a lot of ground. I have to recalibrate my sense of how far I can go! This is what I wanted in the boat, so I am happy.

I'll post a few pictures. See folks at Essex?

Clint

 

essex

Got to meet Clint and see his boat. Drake is a beauty...! Clint is tall and rangey. his Height gives him a great stroke on the oars and he used it to get a second place. Congrats! I had an oar malfunction. The old fart hanging on to the oars faded out in the last mile of the race and got passed by two boats he had passed earlier. I think I came in 5th. Not great, but I was happy enough for my first singles race in a new boat

 

Good to meet you too Jeff. I was a bit frazzled getting to the race a little late from Maine, finding where to go, what to do, and I nearly missed the start...had to claw my way through all the sliding seat boats to get to the line...got there with less than a minute to spare. I meant to chat with you more, Jeff.

The conditions were tricky...tight river, quite a tidal current and lots of wind coming back. I was very tired afterwards, mainly because of the windward last leg. I need a second pair of oar for those conditions, maybe 8 1/2' to get better leverage and a higher stroke rating. My oars are 9'1" and give a great stroke in everything but upwind and "upchop". I need to find some 8 1/2 footers to try. Going downwind with seaway, I could use longer oars...but to compensate I use a long slow stroke.

I am very, very happy with Drake. She did great. I had wicked indigestion when I got back, from the strenuous activity I get that sometimes. I have a lot to do to get ready for the Blackburn both physically and the boat needs to be tested with flotation.

Clint

 

Essex River

That race was uphill both ways. Out at the island, the tide was running strong enough to put the lobster bouys under the surface, and the wind coming back was no prize either. I really appreciated the lower free board on Nordlys; the wind bothered me less than I might have imagined. My oar buttons kept slipping up the oar shafts and I wound up rowing with an awful disadvantageous leverage. Initially, the 8' oars felt just about right, but I think that something about 4" longer would be even better. That would give me a bit of overlap and just a tad more out board. The gear ratio would be the same or better for normal conditions. Have they posted the results on line yet? I have no idea of the times and how I actually finished. RE the Blackburn Chalange: I'm not sure that I have the stamina to do that this year. Maybe if my brother gets feeling better we can ga in our double.

 

Results are online, Jeff.

Cheers,
Clint

 

Rowing video

Here is an example of a fast rowboat. My best rowboat design by now. Built by Ruud van Veelen, http://www.puuvenepiste.fi/parisoutu.html

Here is a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8rwUgGHLSY

This is a race boat by Finnish national wooden rowboat rules. (so called Sulkava rowboats). http://www.suursoudut.net/eng/Rules.asp

They race 2, 10, 30 and 60 km long distance races.

 

Wow

boy, that is one slick boat. I am particularly impressed by the very clean entry and the almost total lack of a stern wave. What speed are you making in some of those scenes? It looked as if you were in cruise mode in some scenes and in sprint mode in other scenes. I think you would grab first place in any race around here. Would you share the lines with us, or are they still top secret due to the fact that you are racing with her ? Thank you for sharing with us and it's good to see you back on this thread.

 

First, I'm not a rower there. They are sportsmen. I'm not. Just a designer.

The top speed is over 7 knots. (approx 9 min/2 km)

If you roll the first link through you will have a good view of her lines. For commercial reasons, I can't publish her lines drawing.

 

design

understood on the design issue. 7 knots is moving along very fast in a row boat. If I understand, that is your design, and I congratulate you on a fine boat that could compete anywhere and possibly win. Could she be rowed as a fixed seat with no outriggers?