Skerry - Stowing Oars / Spars Underway?

Have had my newly finished Skerry (w/ Lug rig) out a few times and am trying to solve the following problem:  

What to do with the mast & spars when rowing; and what to do with the oars when sailing; if you want to have both onboard to be able to switch betwixt them while underway?

Oars:

With the sail up, the oars can be slid through the oarlocks and rotated to rest on either the fore or aft seat, and mostly stay put if you're not moving too much.  But if things start to get fun they move and slide around, fall into the water, fall into the boat, etc.  My initial thought is that perhaps there is a good way to attach them either on top of the rails, or to the rails but hanging off the sides, so they are out of the way.  Perhaps, installing the second set of oarlocks and using those as bungee attachment points, so as to either strap them to the tops of the rails, or hanging just below the rails off the sides?  

If anyone has solved this and has pictures would really appreciate the pointers.

Spars:

The spars / mast seems a bit trickier.  Ideally I'd like to be able to take the mast and spars down and "stow" things so that its out of the way for rowing, fishing, sitting, etc.  One thought is, bungee everything up tight and "hang" the mast off the starboard side of the boat, and the spars / sail off the port side, so that they are parallel with the water but "outside" the boat and won't get in the way rowing.

Another idea would be to somehow install a boom rest someplace aft (possibly, building another mast-step like box on the floor near the aft seat, building two short poles with "Y" forks at the top, and setting the mast / spars in that so that everything is overhead.

thanks,

Erik


4 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Skerry - Stowing Oars / Spars Underway?

   I'm still trying to figure out what to do w/ the oars. I take mine out of the sockets and place them blades to the bow as far up as I can get them.  They do slide about in a seaway though.  I'm thinking of trying to make a couple of wooden blocks w/ bungees to hold the oar shafts but it will take a bit of thinking and shaping. I would then sand the right spots on the inside of the hull, epoxy the blocks on, and do some patch painting.

As for the sail, if there is no breeze, I have "brailed" the lugsail up on the mast.  I dropped the sail, pulled the middle of the halyard back to the end of the boom & spar, tying it off w/ a bit of line that ties the ends together w/ a fold of the sail and the middle of the halyard.  I then hauled up the halyard, which picks up the aft end of the spars and sail and takes them high on the mast.  Cleated the halyard, and snugged the bundled sail and spars to the mast w/ a bungee.  This clears the boat interior, but it does put a bit of weight up the mast and presents some windage.  This picture is a fair representation, although in my case, there are no brailing lines already in place.

If there is breeze that I'm trying to row against, I drop the sail and spars into the boat, use a bungee or two to bundle it up and there's enough space to shove it over to the side and still give me space on the center thwart to row.  I don't know how much space it will take with passengers.  I've only had my wife on board, and we were fortunate to sail all but a few strokes of the oars to get off the shore.  I think we could arrange it with her in the stern and me on the center.  It is not the best balance, but for short trips, not bad, especially if we have the cooler and junk to put forward.

RE: Skerry - Stowing Oars / Spars Underway?

   I'll have to take a picture of the brailing to illustrate, but it is pretty easy and in harbor, without breeze, works well.

RE: Skerry - Stowing Oars / Spars Underway?

Erik -

This arrangement has worked well for me. 

I’ve mounted oarlock sockets at both the forward and the center rowing stations and installed closed oarlocks on the oars, with a pair of open oarlocks in the other sockets.  I secure the oarlocks with stainless steel clevis pin clips through the holes at the end so I can easily switch the oars from one location to the other, yet I won’t lose any oarlocks if I capsize, nor will the oars float away.  Note that clevis pin clips come in several sizes, but you may have to hunt around a bit to find them in stainless steel.

I don’t have a good solution for storing the sail, spars, and mast comfortably if I want to row.  Typically, I would just leave the whole rig at home if I specifically want to go rowing.  Normally, though my wife and I will go sailing together.  The place we usually launch is in a cove where I have to row out against the prevailing wind before I can set the sail, so I will step the mast, hoist the sail to make sure I’ve sorted everything out, then drop the sail and spars and push them aside (no bungees required), with my wife seated in the stern, much as Mummichog describes.

hokker

RE: Skerry - Stowing Oars / Spars Underway?

   I took a few photos of the brailing of the lugsail on the skerry.  With the sail/spars down, I pulled the halyard back to the clews:

Then just hoist up the halyard:

Until it's all the way up, and secured on the mast with a bungee:

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.