Thursday, 22 August 2013

Wrong

When I got Snarleyow on the water on Sunday I realised the horrible truth. The oars were too short. The handles don't overlap and I couldn't get used to the feeling of disconnection between the hands and the lack of leverage on the blade.
I have been rowing the Teifi skiffs at Langstone Cutters a lot over the last year and poor old Snarly has been languishing rather, so I had forgotten how the oars feel.
However, a couple of pairs of recently-acquired second-hand blades just happen to be lurking in the shed for another project. Perhaps they would fit? No - they are too long.
Unfortunately, the buttons (the green and red collar thingies) can't be adjusted enough to bring the handles together because the leathers (the plastic sleeve thingies) are not long enough. I don't want to shorten the oars because that would mean losing the nice new rubber grips as well as ruining them for the future project.
So there is nothing for it but to suck it up and use the short oars. It still beats staying on land though.
Today, the DCA/HBBR sails round to Prinsted for lunch at the great little cafe in the marina. Full English for lunch, yum yum.

2 comments:

Jim Gallacher said...

Hello Chris

I have just taken delivery of a new Sprite, it's very light and looks promising.

However I also purchased the 8.5' wooden oars which were billed as spoons. The two blades together weigh around 1 stone 2 lbs. I was rather surprised if not shocked when I lifted one up. So I thought I would ask if you now the weight of your oars roughly speaking?

I am a bit perplexed as I don't see how the oars can be sufficiently balanced without huge exertion when sliding forward. [I haven't tried them on the boat yet]. They are made by the 'standard' oar method of three laminated blocks, and there is not much more of a curve on them than with a flat oar as the blade is pretty chunky.

Do you have any thoughts or advice on any of this. Thanks, Jim.

Jim Gallacher said...

By the way I thought your existing Sprite oars were comfortable already with the overlap. Perhaps I should be thinking about a wider range of oar types and materials. Jim.