How big are your rowlocks mate?

floatything

floatything

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I've just purchased a nice new pair of Brittania oars, 7' long for my mirror dinghy. I want to fit sturdy galvanized rowlocks but don't know which size to get. The oars have collars, the diameter of which is just over 50mm.

How big should the rowlocks be? Is a loose fit best? Any advice welcome.

Floatything Chris
 
You want them tight enough so that you have to slide the collar into them. That is the oar shaft will fit between the horns, but the collar won't.

So you put the oar shaft into the rowlock and slide it along so the collar enters the rowlock, but it can't jump out.

I think that makes sense, doesn't it?
 
Galvanised rowlocks come in a bewildering variety of sizes. Not only do the jaws vary but the pins are different sizes.

I have two pairs hanging in the garage that I couldn't get to work. Eventually settled with a pair that bizarrely are assymetric i.e. one size of the jaw is higher than the other. But then I can't get on with the collars. Took them off and glued some leather on instead.

So you may have to try a few. The good news is that the plates are all the same size.

BTW you should have string on the ends that is long enough to allow them to dangle inside the boat. Otherwise they tend to get stuck under pontoons.
 
Hi Chris. Found this site that gives 2 dimensions, shaft dia and 'gape' which is the distance between the tips of the horns.

[pedant] these aren't rowlocks, they are crutches. A rowlock is a cutout in the gunwale [/pedant] So you should be saying 'how big is your crutch?'
 
Lanyards on rowlock essential.
tender02.jpg


these are my latest(plastic) rowlocks. I lost 2 steel ones to the dreaded "painter under the rowlock, flicks it up and away" syndrome.
Terrible when you are on your mooring and see the painter about to jerk tight and you know it will launch the rowlock to a watery grave.
 
Plastic rowlocks are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard for serious rowing. You can still use lanyards with galvanized but even better is a captive rowlock like this:
70040t.jpg
 
Plastic rowlocks are nice and cheap.
I still have my steel ones and the steel gudgeons you can see in the picture are still mounted.

Plastic rowlocks have the distinct advantage of being much quieter and limiting the speed.
I can do 3.4mph easily but at 3.7mph they distort and the oars fly out.
This prevents me overdoing it when rowing, which is never serious. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I also have a range of chocolate fireguards.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Eventually settled with a pair that bizarrely are assymetric i.e. one size of the jaw is higher than the other.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's how they should be! The high side should face the bow when you're rowing. Plastic collars? Whatever next! Leather, dressed occasionally with tallow. Plastic rowlocks are a waste of time and deserve no place on or anywhere near the water.
When we all learnt to row as children it was a source of much p1ss taking if you dropped an oar overboard, and dropping a rowlock over the side was a hanging offence, unless you went back at low tide and found it again (which was a good way of learning how to take bearings off shore marks). I don't use lanyards as they're a pain to tie and untie every trip.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I don't use lanyards as they're a pain to tie and untie every trip.

[/ QUOTE ] I quite agree. I don't take them off. Just pull them out and let them dangle in the tender. I'm not worried about them being pinched as they only cost £1.30 each.
Lot of snobbishness about plastic on here I see.
I used steel for 3 years in this tender before converting to plastic and do you know, the boat rows just as well.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Lot of snobbishness about plastic on here I see.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not snobbishness - practicality. It's all very well skimming gently across a lake but when you're trying to make it up-tide and the oars fly every which way as soon as you give it a bit of welly...
 
[ QUOTE ]
I used steel for 3 years in this tender before converting to plastic and do you know, the boat rows just as well.

[/ QUOTE ] Our tender, a 10' fibreglass boat that rows quite nicely, had plastic when we first tried it. The outboard conked out straight-away, and the plastic rowlocks would only just let me make progress against the tide. Every time I put too much effort in the oar would jump out, when I eased off too much we started going backwards. Maybe they'd have been OK with only one person in the boat, but after that experience I'd be reluctant to try plastic again.
 
Lanyards with big eyes in, but then looped back over the Crutch itself. This means you can just pull them out as you get to the dock, and they'll dangle happily in the boat.

Galv steel far better than plastic. Get them so that they grip the oar at the collar, but the shaft can be dropped into it.

No one seems to have mentioned "thole pins" yet..
 
Well it doesn't really matter where you secure the lanyards as long as they retain the rowlocks.
I've got nothing against steel ones, I have some myself I just don't find using the plastic ones an issue.
 
Plastic vs metal .... isn't it more that the plastic ones are designed for light duty tenders ... but I like many others try to "extend" their range and push them into jobs not intended for ?

A small tender to get to / from a reasonably quiet mooring is not same as plugging out into middle of an exposed harbour and really putting effort into the oars !

I've had both metal and plastic .... on the small pram dinghy I used to have - both were fine .. but on the stem larger dinghy the plastic did "spring" and were not capable.
 
How many more times do I need to say that I find them perfectly acceptable for the use to which I put them?
Someone else will now presumably come on and say

<span style="color:red">"Yeah mate, but if you were plugging into a North Easterly force 8 on an emercency rowing trip to the Isle of Man, plastic ones would be no good" </span>

I KNOW THAT!

Plastic ones are for light tender duties, like going out to your moorings

I KNOW THAT!


Sometimes the forums become a stomping ground for those wanting to reiterate the strikingly obvious. <span style="color:white"> ...... </span> Again. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Don't have a go at me mate ... in fact I was agreeing and only making a point about others having a dig at YOU !!

Next time - I'll stay out of it and let them carry on having a go at you ...

Blimey some people are really ungrateful !

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I use galvanised steel. The pin size is critical in that too small is bad. (here they basically come in 5/16 inch or 3/8 inch) The rowlock tends to flop around in the hole and you lose motion and wear the hole even bigger.
The gape is not so much of a problem as a good bash with a carefull calibrated bashometer will reduce the gape nicely. olewill
 
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