A quest for information - Or 'How daft am I?'

Sultans_Kapitein

Sultans_Kapitein

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A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

I should know the answer to this, in fact I am sure I do but for the life of me I cannot remember!
I saw a guydown at Portsmouth 'rowing' his boat but with only one oar and this was over the stern, I thought this was called sculling, but a quick 'google' tells me NO.
Please put an old fool out of his misery and tell me what it is called. I was most surprised to see anyone still practiced this art in the 21st Century!

Mal
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

It is called sculling. And yes some people do use it. We did so at my club moorings because we had security problems with the club punt that we used to access the moorings. So we changed to sculling knowing that the average towrag wouldnt have a clue how to do it, and couldnt just paddle the really heavy punts.

Its an effective means of propulsion.
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

You're right, it is called sculling. You use a sculling oar over the stern. You twist the oar after each side to side stroke setting up flat figure of 8 motion.
Thousands of sanpans are sculled daily all over SE Asia. An expert can get up to surprising speed.
 
\'How daft am I?\' - Not at all

Yahoo !!!
I am not loosing my marbles after all.
Thanks to everyone for all the answers, as I said I thought it was sculling, but had no other means of checking and after trying to Gooogle sculling got no sense at all. I did learn to do this, or rather tried to do this, many years ago when I was in the 'Boys Brigade' it always struck me as being at bit like that 'test' kids play at where you rub your tummy and pat your head, I have always had trouble getting differnt hands to do different jobs?!
Thanks once again to the power of the forum I now know my memory does work /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mal
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

You don't even need a rowlock or thole pin to skull a dinghy.

Place the loom of the oar on your R shoulder, and holding the shaft of the oar in your R hand just below thecollar, you can make the same flat "8" movements, pulling yourself and the dink towards the blade.

This can be done with a small plank in case of need, and has the advantage that the sculler faces forward.
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

You are correct; it is called "skulling".

It is rather confusing as in the sport, "skulling" refers to the form where each oarsman using two oars as distinct from "rowing" where each oarsman uses a single oar.

Wikiedia gives both definitions for "skulling".
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

[ QUOTE ]
I was most surprised to see anyone still practiced this art in the 21st Century!

[/ QUOTE ] I find it useful in confined spaces and narrow channels and have an extra rowlock on the transom of my little dinghy for that purpose. Not quite the traditional arrangement but very handy.
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

When you try it and you can't do it, it is known as sulking.
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

It's sculling.
Skulling is when you hit yourself on the head with the oar (sweep?) as it comes out of the rowlock.
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

Hah!
But most small French boats have a notch in the transom for sculling and I see them use it.
A
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

[ QUOTE ]
Next question, a little more difficult: What's the dutch word for sculling? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

"Wrikken"

Too many years with the sea scouts. and yes, my 1973 31 foot yacht has a rowlock on the transom. No ordinary person knows why, but it does give me massive amounts of street cred with my fellow sea scouts
 
You should read the whole entry: also from Wikipedia

Single-oar sculling
Venetian gondola

Propelling a watercraft by moving a single, stern-mounted oar from side to side, while changing the angle of the blade so as to generate forward thrust on both strokes. The technique is very old, and its origin is uncertain, probably having been discovered independently several times. It is known to have been used in ancient China [1], on the Great Lakes of North America by pre-Columbian Americans, and in Venice, Italy by gondola pilots since at least the mediaeval period.

In single-oar sculling, the oar pivots on the boat's stern, and the inboard end is pushed to one side with the blade turned so that it generates forward thrust, then twisted so that when pulled back on the return stroke, the blade also produces forward thrust. The oar normally pivots in a simple notch cut into, or rowlock mounted on, the stern of the boat, and the sculler must angle the blade, by twisting the inboard end of the oar, to generate the thrust that not only pushes the boat forward, but also holds the oar in its pivot.

The Chinese "yuloh" (from Chinese: 摇橹; pinyin: yáolǔ; Wade-Giles: yaolu) is a large, heavy sculling oar with a socket on the underside of its shaft which fits over a stern-mounted pin, creating a pivot which allows the oar to swivel and rock from side to side. The weight of the oar, often supplemented by a rope lashing, holds the oar in place on the pivot. The weight of the outboard portion of the oar is counterbalanced by a rope running from the underside of the handle to the deck of the boat. The sculler mainly moves the oar by pushing and pulling on this rope, which causes the oar to rock on its pivot, automatically angling the blade to create forward thrust. This system allows multiple crew to operate one oar, allowing large, heavy boats to be rowed if necessary, and its efficiency gave rise to the Chinese saying, "a scull equals three oars".
 
Re: You should read the whole entry: also from Wikipedia

Probably reaching the point of TMI, but the description of the Chinese Lanyard is a bit misleading. The operator, or Sampan Lady, doesn't pull on the rope, they push and pull the oar keeping the lanyard tight at all times. This not only takes the weight of the oar but it ensures the correct twist at the end of each stroke, considerably easing the load on the wrists. It makes sculling a doddle.
I'm off to the boat now, where I'll probably scull out to the mooring!
 
Re: You should read the whole entry: also from Wikipedia

What the Wikipedia entry shows is that "sculling" can be used to describe many of the things you can do with oars. My memory may well be unreliable, but what my grandfather taught me as sculling seemed quite different from the action that this gondolier showed me, which seemed much more like the action of paddling a canoe, using the oar/scull/paddle as a rudder to correct the turn created by the driving stroke.

Venice1959-1.jpg
 
Re: A quest for information - Or \'How daft am I?\'

There is another single-oar trick, which might be called reverse sculling. With one hand on the oar near the blade and the other on the grip you sit at the stern and carve a figure of eight pulling the water towards you. Very handy for recovering a dropped oar.
 
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