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Nice looking job.

Gary

Maybe I'll get a pic of the oars I made next, but I'd better get a long lens because they're still about 14 feet long. I think I'm only gonna need about 10-11 feet when I get them in the water, but it's a lot easier to cut off a few feet of extra shaft than to saw them longer if I made them too short.

You going to be rowing a Viking longboat? That is gonna take some serious pull to move 14' oars.

It's not so much the pull I'm needing, it's the distance between the oarlocks. The boat I'm using is a bit over six feet wide at that point, so the usual eight foor oars fall way short of actually being able to touch the water at any reasonable kind of angle. If you have to hold the oars handles any further than shoulder distance apart, you can't get any power at all into your pull. Most good rowing setups have the oars set up so that the handles almost touch in the middle; since they swing through an arc as you pull they get farther apart at the beginning and end of the stroke anyway.

I guess I could just get a little 3hp "kicker" as a backup for the main outboard motor, but it's often handy to have a long pole of some kind on board for fending off and things like that anyway. In any case, a set of oars on board is a backup propulsion source that you can't forget to gas up and always starts, a big benefit when the water is cold and deep.

On a big boat oars are best with a over lap (one fist over top of the other) and a lift to sholder level or above. I use 12 footers on a 4 foot beam, 10 footers on a 3 foot beam. I have a 16 foot johnsport peapod with a 4 foot beam that I row standing with 16 footers thart are just right You may find 14 feet just right or a little short. It is OK to let your rists or forearms to cross when at the middle of the stroke. If you do this you will find you have much more power. I have pushed boats up to 42 foot by oar 10 and 15 mi. at a time. Always with the tide. That may be why I an called The Mad Rabbit.

Actually, I finally got it out on the water and I'm going to have to cut less than a foot off of each oar to make them meet in the middle! Talk about a surprise! And here I thought I was going to have enough left over for a new gaff and perhaps a boathook.

If I relocated the oarlocks to a more ideal position closer to the outside edge of the (very wide) gunwales, I wouldn't have to cut them short at all. Unfortunately, it's all welded aluminum so it would be a fairly involved project.

Never heard of a welded aluminum Viking Longboat ....

Sadly (or fortunately, as the case may be), my little boat is neither inhabited by vikings nor long. It is a sturdy little double-bottom welded aluminum skiff with an economical but uninspiring 25hp outboard. It's obviously in need of a higher horsepower jet outboard, but neither the budget nor the wife is very understanding on that point.

dont tell her .... hope that helps ,,,