There are several kinds of oar locks.What is best for a canoe size boat?
Also , what is the best mount? It seems like the gunnels will have to be beefed up at the oarlock.
I like pinned oarlocks well enough
– Last Updated: Apr-08-07 1:48 PM EST –
I know it can be nice to feather the oars during recovery, but I've been pretty happy with pinned oars. It's nice to be able to drop them at a moment's notice and then grab them again and go with no fuss. One thing to look for is an oarlock pin that fits nicely in its socket. Most cheap sets have a sloppy fit, and I don't like the wiggly feel of those, nor do I like the little clunking noise they make.
If your gunwales are reasonably sturdy, you won't need to reinforce them. Traditional guide-boats have no gunwale rails at all; the lightweight wooden hull is stiff enough as it is. Composite guide-boats have a wooden rail that's a bit more sturdy than what many canoes have, and that's needed for that kind of hull. It's stiffer than many canoe gunwales to make up for the fact that there are no thwarts, not because the extra stiffness is needed for rowing.
You do want an oarlock socket that fastens on securely. On my packboat, the sockets are fairly cheap, and are held on with four screws, and the original screws were only one-half inch long. It didn't take long for them to loosen up and leave me stranded (I put ash plugs in the gunwale drain slots behind the socket mounts to allow the use of much longer screws, and the builder now uses longer screws for this purpose too). The sockets on my guide-boat are held on by 10 screws each, and they've never gotten loose.
I think the oarlocks and sockets on my guide-boat are very good quality, and I can send you photos if you'd like. I've seen the same hardware on a few other boats, and I'm sure it would be easy to find out where to get that stuff.
String …Hold everything
7.5 foot oars and 34 inch spread doesn’t make any sense to me. Are you somewhere I can lend you some oars? I also think you need to borrow some short outrirgers. I’m in central NC and can meet you part way. It will be worth the trip.
On oarlocks I think you’ll want to use pinned oars for the first year or so. Instead of drilling nice spruce oars you can use the clamp on locks for the first year. After that I recommend wrapped oars and bronse ring locks. I get them from Duckworks.
I was wrong about the boat width.
It is 38" .
Frank , I can arrange another trip to Raliegh; it sounds like I need to try this oar/oarlock thing before I settle on what to do.
First it was kayaks, then canoes, now rowboats.
Next with be a Carolina Skiff with a 4 stroke Yamahauler.
OK
38 inches is a lot better. infact if you want to use 6 or 6.5 foot oars 38 inches is very doable. It is also easy to add blocks to the gunnels to increase the width just an inch so you can use 7 foot oars in rough water.