Oarlock placement

I bought a small jonboat and when I took it out, I quickly saw that the oar were in a very poor position, causing the handle ends to hit my legs on the back stroke and dipping into the water. What are the standard locations for oarlocks? The boat is about as narrow as jonboats come.

 

Sounds like the thwart is too high. The locks should be 8-10" above the thwart, and 8-10" aft. When sitting upright on the thwart with your elbows down and in with a 90 degree bend the oars should stick straight out or a little bit up. Also check the oar length

 

The thawrt seems a tad low to the deck but the gunwale is not very high and the locks might be too close to the thwart.

 

oarlocks

A jon boat has too litle freeboard to get good oarlock placement unless you sit almost on the bottom. If you want to row very much, you will need to raise the oarlocks and position them prety much as stated in the last posts. The oars should overlap by a little bit when held hotizontally in the oarlocks. When rowing, the handles will come up enough to let them clear, or you row with one hand in front of the other. A ratio of 3 to 1 outboard to inboard is about max for normal rowing. If in doubt, go with a shorter oar. A jon boat won't be any kind of a spreedster, but with a good set-up it should be an easy boat to move along. good luck

 

To screw with the orlock placement, I clamped to boards to the gunwale and started drilling holes. I found that at about 22 inches from the thwart, I could expect to be able to row without problems. I am going to give it a try when the river calms.