Oar thickness?

[Axel]

Dear forum members,

I am debugging my Spindrift 11N in Switzerland (there are no bugs in the design, by the way, they are only in my boat, and it's the fault of the builder).  The boat has some Garry's marvellous ideas built in, which are working fine. It's a tough little boat, used as a daycruiser and for solo camp cruising on the Lake of Constance.

Your forum has been a great help. I found answers for lots of my questions. However, I am hesitating presenting photos until I have tested out any feature and modification in detail to be sure that it really works as intended.

Sorry for the really silly question, but at the moment I am breaking 2" closed bronze oar locks. They look tortured, having an small angle of about 2-3

[Garry]

Hi Axel,

Glad some of my tricks are working for you.

It sounds definitely like you need larger oarlocks or ones with an open top. I have 7-1/2 ft oars with plastic sleeves like these:

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|294|99010|320532&id=108420

They work well with the 2" solid oarlocks. I clamp them in place instead of screws or nails, and then wrap the hose clamps with duct tape.

Garry

[Designer]

Hi Axel,

It is good to hear that you have launched the boat.

I am amazed that you broke an oarlock, I have rowed a lot of miles over many years and have never broken one, it is obvious that you don't have enough clearance. To test clearance I check that the oar does not bind as I rotate and move it up and down through the full rowing motion plus a bit. If the oar binds I use bigger oarlocks. Over here we have two basic sizes, 2" and 2 1/4". I always use 2" for Spindrifts. After wearing out a couple of sleeves like Garry showed I went to protecting my shafts with several wraps of fiberglass tape, I am still using that same set of oars 30 years since I taped them. I put a turks-head above the oarlock as a stop. I like closed oarlocks with stops because I can never lose them and I like to be able to let go of the oars to tend to other business without fear of them slipping overboard.

I have a set of stainless steel oarlocks that I made 30 years ago and they are still going strong.

Thole pins work okay but they are a bit sloppier to use than oarlocks.