Location of Oarlocks and size of Oars

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I am about to convert a Duck Hunting Plywood dory looking canaoe into a rowing canoe. I am going to use a home fitness rowing machine, using the sliding seat and foot rests only, removing the rowing arms and cylinders along with the side bars to make it lighter.

The canoe is 15' long with a 35" beam. My question is where do I locate the Oarlocks onto my gunwales? I realize the Sculling hulls and drop in rowing equipment for canoes have out riggers for placement oarlocks. My other question is with the oarlocks on the gunwales what size Oars do I use? The is a flat bottom canoe with some rocker, glides through the water very nicely.

Thanks for your help.

Art

-- Art Nunes (CanoeArt@aol.com), December 02, 2001

Answers

it's been a while since you posted this... how's it working...

or do you still need help??

I know from playing around with my own rowboat/canoe that i ended up mounting the slide etc further to the stern that i'd thought i'd have to... if i recall my body was just over the midpoint of my boat with legs extended and my body in the layback position..

once you've located your slide etc...the best location of your oarlocks in relation to the sliding seat arrangement is as follows... slide the seat to where you'd normally start your stroke.... using the front edge of your seat as your guide... it should be in line with... or slightly past ie to the stern of the oarlocks say at the most 3 inches or so... again you'll have to play around to see what feels best particualry since this step up is more typical of racing boats... one other comfort check on your set up is once your sort of set up in the boat is to go to the finish position and check where your handles end up... they should end up as wide as your body but still be jsut in front of it....

oar length... is going to be limited by your 35 inch beam..unless you decide to go with some sort of outrigger to get more span... i believe the way things usually work out for FIXED seats is half the beam ( sometime plus a couple inches) as your inboard (ie from the end of the handle to the oarlock)+ 3 to 3.5 times that for your outboard (ie from the oarlock to the tip of the oar) becuase your using a slide you'll want be to be on the high end of this equation maybe even stretch it somewhat... ie 7.5 ft maybe even 8 ft oars BUT i'd strongly caution you not to use an inboard over 20 inches. becuase you can only adjust for so much handle overlap.

PS you may want to raise/lower how your slide sits in the boat as well... the most comfortable position to pull in is with your hand levels somewhere between your belly button and the bottom of your Pec's... pulling in at chin level or scraping them along your legs isn't any fun or very effiecient...

Mike

-- mike reiner (reiners@silk.net), January 28, 2002.


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