Chinese Narrow Boat 30~40 feet, beam 7 feet

There are many narrow boats in Britain. I made a Chinese-style narrow boat. Is anyone interested?

The bow of this boat is square.

There is a LU (橹, like a tail of fish, or a swim-fin) in the stern to push. This device allows the boat to be manually propelled in a narrow waterway. In fact, this type of device is also used on large ships to propel them, Each LU can have dozens of people to manipulate.


In shallow waters, you often use a GAO (篙, A pole made of bamboo, head with an iron nails) to manipulate it.

 

These manual operated Chinese propulsion devices are commonly known as a "Yuloh" in the western world, and are quite popular with those who sail engineless.

Sculling - (on Wikipedia) - ---> - 2.1 - China - ---> - The Chinese "Yuloh"​

Traditional Hongtou (red-head) Sampans of Shanghai in China, both propelled by a Yuloh.

Good luck !

 

would putting a hinge on the blade help give better thrust/sideswipe ratio? I'm thinking about 30 deg total "flop", so about 15 deg on either side. It would have similar effect to shortening the oar which increases angle of stroke.

Seems like you'd want to increase oar length as you pick up speed to maintain same 'bite' on water.