Sacrilege or Solution?

11-ft Collapsible Carbon Oars on a Haven 12 ½

Article by Sean Grealish

Over this past winter we ran a survey here in SCA focused on the purchase and upkeep costs of small boats. In addition to many data points regarding costs, the survey also collected many boat size/length/propulsion specifications, including whether the vessels submitted carried oars and/or motors in addition to sails. The graph below displays some of that data, in which a whopping 55% of vessels submitted by SCA readers had no human propulsion option onboard, instead relying on electric or combustion motors when the wind dies. As a member of the no-motors on small boats cult, I dove into the data to see which poor soul was rowing around the heaviest small boat (displacement was part of the survey). To my amusement, I found that it was me, doggedly rowing the 1,600 lbs Lazydog around the Salish Sea. Given this discovery I thought it worthwhile to further elaborate here on the FrankenOars that I’ve modified to suit my needs and some of the problems that must be overcome before rowing around heavy boats.