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cs20 oars


Roanoke Islander

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Good afternoon all!

I have recently purchased plans for a cs20 from Graham and while waiting to begin building I want to build a set of oars for her. After reviewing previous posts and not coming across a consensus on length (I may have missed it) I am hoping that someone who has experience rowing a cs20 could help me out. I would plan to row from a station just forward of the mizzen mast.

I am also wondering if anyone has had experience sculling this boat to access ramps and other short trips?

Thank you to all and have a great day,

Tom

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Tom,

I moved my CS20 around with a yuloh for a while - something akin to sculling. While it did move the boat nicely, it would not be enough power for a situation with any significant current. I built a bigger yuloh for more power, but storing it on board was a problem.

I now have a set of oars 9'6" long hanging in tubes alongside the centerboard trunk. Rowing stations are in front of and behind the mizzen. The forward position is better for long pulls, but the aft station allows one to row standing facing forward with the tiller between the knees. This works well in tight places, like at the ramp or dock.

A canoe paddle also works well for short moves, but I would not want to use for any distance.

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I just completed making a birdsmouth hollow spar for the upper 1/3 of my CS 17 mast. I had never done it before and I enjoyed it very much. You will too.

If you are not aware there is an excellent article in WoodenBoat Magazine on Bird's Mouth Hollow Spars which I used specifically to determine the sizes to make the staves.

Wooden Boat July/August 1999 number 149 page 31. I did all my calculations in metrics. It was much easier to calculate using the percentages.

I spent about 4 hours making the staves on the table saw. It was very tedious because they were very small. If you are going to make oars you will have the same experience.

The next day I took about an hour to glue up both of them. It is best to have two people to do the glue up. They came out to the right size so I guess I did the calculations correctly. I used a power planer to ruff them to almost circular. Now my next step is to sand them smooth.

If you need more information, let me know.

post-181-129497646776_thumb.jpg

post-181-129497646778_thumb.jpg

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Brent, how did you proportion your yuloh, and how did you rig and use it? I'm considering making a "$10 yuloh," but know I'll have to alter the proportions to at least clear the mizzen. I expect it has to have a lock a little to one side of the rudder, and have the lanyard tied off to the keel batten. But I'm unclear on how to swing it in the confines of the aft cockpit. How did you do it? I hear you on storage: I'm hoping the slight angle will help me wrap a shorter, broader-bladed yuloh around the coaming on one side.

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Frank has the formulas for sizing the staves on his web site also

http://users2.ev1.net/~fshagan/mastm.htm

When we were over in Louisiana year before last I saw some wonderful double paddles made using the technique- have shafts of about 1 inch diameter and staves of just over 1/8 inch thick. Beautiful.

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Jeff M asked:

how did you proportion your yuloh, and how did you rig and use it?

I built several yulohs, playing with the design parameters.

A blade about 2.5 feet long worked well and I used blade designs of 6 to 10 inches wides. The blade was mounted on a fulcrum about 11 feet long. The fulcrum was built from 1 x 6 poplar laminated to another piece of lumber with the appropriate curve to deliver the desired drop at the handle end of about 6 inches below the imaginary line running through the yuloh blade. This drop is critical to developing the proper leverage and sculling motion.

A ball mounted on the stern of the boat nestled into one of a series of sockets drilled into the fulcrum handle. The sockets provided a selection of different leverage ratios (relative ratio of lever on the blade ends versus the handle end) making finding a comfortable rhythm a simple matter of selection the appropriate socket.

The yuloh ball was mounted to the stern well off the boat centerline. Therefore the rudder and tiller could be left in place while under yuloh power, and the yuloh was positioned comfortably to the side allowing the operators weight to be on boat centerline. The lanyard was mounted to a cleat on the seat bulkhead. A clam cleat on the fulcrum allowed the lanyard length to be quickly adjusted.

Have fun with this. A yuloh is a very asthetically pleasing way to move a boat. A properly done yuloh could be used for hours on end without strain. Finding a place to store a yuloh on a CS eventually drove me nuts. Let me know where your creativity with this take you.

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Brent, thanks for all the info! Did you pattern your yuloh after an existing design? I'm trying to picture yours, since it is different from the "$10" one (a 2x4x8' glued at an 11 degree angle to a 1x6x8'). Yours seems to be a 3-piece: a 2-1/2' blade mounted to an 11' loom with a short connecting piece to give the right angle. I'm guessing your sockets straddled the middle of the whole thing. Did you use this sitting or standing? As for storage underway, I'm thinking the "$10" design, being made of two pieces the same length, might be bolted rather than glued so the length could be more manageable. Thanks again for all the advice!

Jeff

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Jeff,

I was very concerned about the strength of the looms on the yulohs I built. Seems like a broken loom might make a bad sailing day into a very bad sailing day. So the 11 foot poplar loom was epoxied to the blade over a good 18" of the blade length. The loom ran from the blade to the handle in one continuous piece. The loom was bent to form the desired angle. The bend was held in place by laminating the 11 foot poplar loom to a shorter section of wood (about 4 feet long as I recall) that was planned to the desired bend radius. This shorter piece ended up in the same vacinityas the sockets ( which ran down the centerline of the loom).

Maybe all my concern was just needless worry. The yuloh does generate some considerable thrust. I did not want to see it coming apart when I needed it the most.

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