Anyone row their sailing boat on / off a mooring ?

Single scull at transom worked well for me on a shipman28, however I'm not sure what stance you can take on a trimaran, as it's probably not got much deck at the back.
 
More popular in France, where having a scull used to be common (compulsory?) on small sailing boats.

There was a thread on here a while back where some claimed to prove by calculation that it was physically impossible to propel a sailing boat with oars. By contrast there's tales from Maurice Griffiths and others propelling decent sized yachts for miles with a long ash sweep, but that were in the Olden Days, when men were men....

I've used an oar or paddle in emergencies, or as a bow thruster substitute, and still carry one just in case,

I seem to recall Dylan has a video of him propelling the Slug with a paddle or oar.
 
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I lately saw several 'racing' dinghies of differing classes, which it turned out were not racing, just pottering, stemming the incoming tide, going nowhere for half an hour.

Owning a boat which can easily be shifted by a little manual exertion is wonderfully convenient...so, denying oneself the freedom of doing so is not very bright. For years I sailed a Topper, and endlessly regretted the fact that she couldn't be rowed...it's such a basic, reliable, peaceful auxiliary option for smallish vessels.

Writing this has encouraged me to buy oars. I'd hesitated at the cost, but it doesn't make any sense to own a boat I could easily row at a useful pace, yet be unable to.

I reckon I'll do the same aboard any bigger boats that can be pushed along manually, as and when I own 'em. Anything rather than noise and smoke! :)
 
I used to row my friend's twenty foot river boat into its Thames berth. This was because I did not like reversing it under power, as it had some startling behaviours when you did this and the boat next door was expensive and well-loved.

I would stand on the foredeck with a long sweep oar to row it in backwards, which was quite hard work but perfectly effective: you can get a bowthruster effect, as Little Sister says. I would judge the strength of any current running quite carefully before trying it.
 
simonfraser said:
Going to have a go this weekend, any pointers ?
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Take the longest oar(s) you can lay your hands on or fit on the boat.
You will probably want some rags or other material to tie round the oar(s) to avoid damaging whatever you are resting the oar on and levering against.
Try sculling over the stern, as suggested above.
Try rowing (pushing) facing forwards (traditional use of sweep) as well as facing astern.
Try using just one, rather than two.
Try using the winches or pushpit stanchions to lever against, then use some rope to make a temporary 'rowlock' to hold the oar in the most practical position.

Have fun, and let us know how you get on.
 
simonfraser said:
MU o/b is a 2.2 honda.
Hardly ever use it at more than half throttle, how efficient is it anyway ?
Just googled 1HP = 750 Watts, I can do that in the gym 20 min no problem.
Takes me minutes to move boat on / off.
Going to have a go this weekend, any pointers ?
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Like this?
RS 14 Stavanger don't have an engine.
Built for the Norwegian Sea Rescue in 1901, she is now taken ashore to become an museum piece.
 
I did it a long time ago with the RYA Young Skippers - first in Sonata then in a Duette.

However - we had 3 or 4 blokes on board - all in our Late teens / early twenties. we had one oar each and swapped round frequently. You couldn't go far - in / out of Marinas or to maintain steerage whilst basically drifting with the current. Speed is limited - In a short burst you might get 3-4 knots and hold it for a minute or two but only when racing another boat to win a round of beers!!!

Small OB is much better idea.
 
I have occasionally rowed my little boat 21ft. This when there is no wind. While I carry an outboard it is heavy to lift from under the cockpit in the cabin to fit on a transom bracket. The boat rows or paddles quite well. Little Sister is right. If you can get a good comfortable rowing position pulling 2 long oars from decent rowlocks you can do really well.
I face backwards and hook the oars behind the upright of the side part of the pushpit. I really need however a cross cockpit seat and some sort of adjustable clamp for the tiller.Rope and bungee. (the tiller and rudder retain the most steering authority). Fortunately we don't often have tide flow problems. good luck olewill
 
LittleSister said:
More popular in France, where having a scull used to be common (compulsory?) on small sailing boats.
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Yep - I have a 70s edition of the Glénans sailing manual, which absolutely assumes that you will have a sculling sweep on board.

It talks about how to come alongside first under sail, then how to use the sweep, then only as an afterthought does it mention the novel idea of using an engine, if you have one :)

Pete
 
:D:D

Yes, using oar/ oars/ sweeps to propel a small vessel is quite possible, very enjoyable, good for your health, and using popular thinking, is Green.

I find that it takes very little effort to get a vessel on the 'move', but any speed is difficult, but then again its not 'speed' that is the objective, its manouvering short distances, under control. :D with a big grin on your face
 
"Just googled 1HP = 750 Watts, I can do that in the gym 20 min no problem."


No, the sustained power a normal human can produce is between 100 and 150W.

Using a long oar engages the principles of leverage so that you have more "power" but less speed.
 
My boat (23.5 ft) has a rowlock on the transom. I had an oar made of a windsurfer mast cut in three then each section pushed into to other so it collapsed to about 2'6" and was a reasonable length when expanded, it had a canoe paddle on the end. I never really tried sculling with it and using it as a stern thruster whilst juggling rudder and outboard trying to get the stern round tightly was a little beyond me. However I am still looking for a replacement flat blade from a Canadian canoe paddle or similar.
 
I sometimes "helped along" my First 18 with one of the dingy paddles in a calm, but it wasn't fast and it was hard work.

It was nice to be able to get the few yards back to the mooring on a dead calm night when it would have been sacriledge to disturb the peace with the outboard.

I won't be trying it with the Centaur.
 
Many of the competitive ( as contrasted with 'participant' ) boats entered in the Three Peaks Race(s) and the Scottish Islands Peaks Race(s) use various arrangements of sculls to get into/out of their stop-points/moorings. There's no good reason not to have a sculling arrangement for a teensie-weensie trimaran such as Simon's.... might delay the onset of middle-aged beer-spread! ;)
 
Moved my 36ft trimaran with paddles once when the motor failed and again in France getting into a lock at a festival. A crew at the bow of each float worked the best!
 
sarabande said:
"Just googled 1HP = 750 Watts, I can do that in the gym 20 min no problem."


No, the sustained power a normal human can produce is between 100 and 150W.

Using a long oar engages the principles of leverage so that you have more "power" but less speed.
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First point is correct, second point correct is the other way round. The leverage is more force, greater speed. Unless you have a longer inboard length and short outboard length, but that is not practical.
 
The advantages of a trimaran's minimal displacement and slender hull must favour a manual-auxiliary, provided the outriggers/floats aren't in the oars' way.

With respect, I don't think any experience of paddling a boat bigger than a canoe is relevant unless as stated, you have two paddlers, one each side.

The benefit of being able to steer and power singlehanded with oars, was always very much preferable in my experience. Paddles kept aboard small sailboats are most often sad little broken plastic things, only held to stay within the letter of racing-safety guidelines.

Oars are long enough to be a nuisance when they're not in use - but that inconvenience feels well worth putting up with, once you're rowing.

Does anybody have a strong view about where exactly to position the rowlocks? I've heard that 30cm astern of the rowing seat is about right...but I'm not keen to drill more holes than necessary. My old boat came with more than enough of those... :rolleyes:
 
I'd be well impressed!

simonfraser said:
...750 Watts, I can do that in the gym 20 min no problem...
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Coo! In an instrumented viii in which I was rowing, the strongest in our crew got 850W during a "jump 10" (I only managed about 750W), and we could sustain this only for a few 10s of strokes. Looking at the Concept 2 rowing machine site, http://concept2.co.uk/training/guide/watts_conversion you will note that they don't even bother taking the scale above 600W.

But fortunately it is quite easy to propel even a reasonable size yacht under oars provided there's no wind.

A knot or so isn't that hard: at 1m/s (=2kts) my 42' boat's hull needs only ~120N (or ~12kg) of force. That is 120W, so quite reasonable.

To go into 10kts of wind adds 380N of force (I measured this), so 500N total force which means 500W at 1m/s, assuming 100% efficiency. The efficiency will be much less, probably only 50% ('time on the slide is time wasted';-), so little chance I think. A smaller boat will have less windage obviously.
 
The geometry of the "rowlock" and length of sweep will depend exactly on the freeboard and beam of the boat. My boat has more freeboard than the designer approves of and must displace 3 tonne min in cruising trim. I would envisage those facts requiring a rower to stand forward in the cockpit, push rowing with the sweeps at quite an angle - more like the stance of a gondolier, but with two sweeps. With a smaller, low freeboard vessel it may be possible to fit rowlocks and bench to row conventially. For most of us, I would imagine a strop around the oar slipped over the sheet winch would be most appropriate, used rather like thole pins. Leathered oars would be good to protect the coamings.

There are many paintings of Thames watermen rowing in a similar fashion, their barges loaded with heavy cargo, so it must be possible with practice, just not easy. In eastern countries boatmen ply their trade using a yuloh over the stern and making good progress across open harbours.

There was a PBO Sketch Book piece on rowing yachts. One suggestion was to make an extension which slid over the grips of the dinghy oars to extend them for use on the yacht.

Rob.
 
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