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Northeast Dory with two rowers
For the first time I took the NED out with a rower in the stern position and me at the forward station. It was a special occasion so I re-leathered one of my pairs of oars to accommodate the narrowness of the bow. I arranged them so that the oars ends would miss each other by about 3 inches, to prevent my hands colliding with the daggerboard trunk. Well, that was awkward. I'm generally a strong rower but having that much outboard wood, and the angle of the oarlocks made the experience a lot less fun, and it was a 3 mile tour of the outer harbor of New Bedford with an opposing tide returning. The locks would bounce and clatter against the lock keepers with almost every stroke: noisy! My stern rower did fine, no problems. I'm thinking that perhaps, with two rowers, it would be better just to do stern and middle stations though the weight balance would be off somewhat. I also wondered if a different oars in the forward position might help. Help!
Dory Jim
1 reply:
RE: Northeast Dory with two rowers
» Submitted by Gramps - Mon, 5/18/20 » 11:25 AM
Have you read John Harris' article on this general topic? See here:
https://www.clcboats.com/life-of-boats-blog/woodenboat-magazine-240-the-geometry-of-rowing.html
He has an oar length formula in there somewhere which takes into account the height of the oarlocks above the water as well as the spread. Obviously, your longer oars meant for the center position are going to feel like trying to get a car with a manual transmission moving starting in high gear if you just move the point where they meet the oarlocks inboard. Maybe John's formula will get you closer to a good length for the geometry, given the added height of the lock at the forward position, and you can mock it up with broom handls or some such until something feels right.
I can see that having to clear the dagerboard trunk is something of a problem which might lead you to using shorter oars.than you otherwise might. The tricky part is to try to stick close to the "normal" 7:18 inboard to outboard ratio (generally works out well for middling weight, fixed seat rowing boats like this) as you can without ending up pulling into your face, with your hands too far apart, rather than your chest on the stroke.
it's a tricky business.
.....Michael