Oar blade shenanigans (here be dragons)

LOL!! you should follow the link: Okrz all say "Da Red Wun Fassa" and red is exactly opposite Green on the color wheel doncha know

BTW my J-24 was green and very fast

 

Yeah but did it have bailers? Bailers are awesome.

 

It had a Whale of a bailing pump

 

I have been struck by the variation in oars over the years. I believe this has to do mostly with the particular boat more than it has to do with propulsion. I can't otherwise find and excuse for some traditional oars, even as they were rowing past me.
The "work" has to be matched to the hull, and as there is more variation in hull types, the solutions are probably more numerous than in the specialized world of sculling. ( Where a speed difference of .01m/s is he difference between good and terrible.)
So I think it is a trial and error kind of thing, where oar length and blade area have to be matched to the particular boat.
One thing I insist on transferring from sculling boats to on the gunwale or fixed seat boats are square buttons and proper locks with keepers. Having the blade fall to feathered and square up without loading up the forearms and wrists is huge.
SHC

 

I agree that some traditional oar types are so weird as to be off the charts. Irish curraghs come to mind as a random example. They work, but there's no way they'd be anywhere near optimum for racing.

There's not that much variation in hull types if you're only talking about fast fixed seat boats. They'll all end up fairly similar, just because of the constraints on building such a beast. The power to be used is going to be the same for all of them, and the speeds attained are going to be within a narrow range. So, they all should be able to use much the same gear.

And I agree about proper pitch control being a damned good idea.