Two piece oars

[Howard]

What is the correct length of oar to use for the Spindrift 10N?

Any sources for these in two piece? Seems to me they should be longer than 5 1/2' oars sold in the catalogs, which also appear to be cheaply made...but not cheaply priced.

Howard

[Designer]

I like between 6'6" and 7'0".

[Howard]

That's what I suspected, with the longest two piece in the West Marine being 6'. Longer one pieces are available, which I may go with.

I might also try my 9' sculling oar, which I keep on the other boat as the fail safe propulsion system. I'm going to add a sculling notch on the transom anyway.

Plan C or D is to use the piece of incredibly expensive spruce I ordered for the boom and make a set of oars. Might be good practice for making a wooden mast.

Howard

[Mike H.]

Howard,

I too am looking for two piece oars for my 10N (which I just cut in half today :!: ) The ones West Marine carry are 6' Caviness oars. I've read a few reviews that seem to point to a lack of quality control as the oars weren't even all the same length always. Aside from mega-buck handmade oars the only other ones I've found are for a nine foot inflatable pontoon fishing boat called the Outcast PAC 900. Here's a web site that sells accessories for it. (http://www.flyfishusa.com/outcast/02-Outcast-Accessories/outcast-acc.html)

Basically they have aluminum two piece oars in 6' and 7' for $40 and $46 respectively and 7' carbon fiber ones for $100, also two piece. The only problem I see with them is that they're not nearly as pretty as wooden oars. They will be lighter and I trust the long sleeved aluminum tubing joint more than the couple of inches of thread on the Caviness oars. I think I'm gonna go for the 7 footers and cut 6" off if necessary, which seems unlikely as 7' is great for a 10 foot boat.

Cheers,

Mike

P.S. Can't resist sneaking in a shot of "the big cut"!