Volvo, Yanmar, or...oars?

[Greenheart]

Okay, this isn't meant to be very serious...

...I just saw the Centaur re-engining thread, and wondered how big, in extremis or how small a yacht needs to be, for one chap rowing to make useful progress...

...I s'pose a couple of fifteen-foot oars could be rowlocked on a Centaur's guardrails, and the oarsman can sit above the companionway, grimacing at SWMBO taking it easy at the tiller...

...not much use in any sort of a tideway, but if one's in need of exercise, it would beat diesel noise in a flat calm.

 

[paul.norton]

Or, (oops, pun alert) how about a yuloh - the Chinese move quite large vessels with them. And it would create a talking point.

 

[Greenheart]

I hadn't heard of the yuloh before, but I've no doubt at all that it works. As a kiddie, on calm days I used to go for long trips aboard my Topper without the rig! No paddles either - I'd go miles just sculling with the rudder. Here's someone else's report on the oriental way:

As far as a yuloh's performance is concerned, an 18-foot Shanghai harbor sampan using a 13-foot yuloh could run at about 3 mph when propelled by one man. Roger Taylor, president of International Marine Publishing Co., has used a 10-foot yuloh on his 32-foot sloop Aria. He claims 2 knots in a calm, not bad for a 5-ton boat.

I reckon that could easily catch on. Half-gondolier, half-tightfisted green yachtie. Healthy, too.

More here: http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/Stories/Sculling/scullthree.html

 

[rob2]

It used to be common for French yachts to carry sweeps and these were often seen in use when moving a short distance around the harbour. They are easily rigged through a strop around the primary winches - the rower standing centre cockpit and pushing. Of course, it was not so common to see them in use in open water, where you either sail or anchor. I've seen them on yachts up to 30 ft.

Rob.

 

[lw395]

I've done my quota of rowing the RYA's Sonatas years ago.
You can go places in no wind, but you cannot punch tide or fight any chop.
An electric outboard would probably have more power output than you average forumite over say 20 minutes?
But for a short burst or positioning in a current, a big sweep is a good tool to have if you are engineless.
But outboards are pretty cheap and reliable these days.

 

[prv]

I'm reading the Cruise of the Kate, on and off. That boat was 24-foot, 3 tons, yawl-rigged - I imagine not that dissimilar to my own Kindred Spirit. The author routinely rowed her for miles between ports, often against the tide. Then again, he seems to have been a model of Victorian determination to the point of pigheaded stubbornness, insisting on overcoming nature when a real seaman (which he was not) would have worked the tides.

He seems to have been mostly powered, while doing this, by half-pints of sherry with raw eggs mixed in

Pete

 

[dylanwinter]

me too

I'm reading the Cruise of the Kate, on and off. That boat was 24-foot, 3 tons, yawl-rigged - I imagine not that dissimilar to my own Kindred Spirit. The author routinely rowed her for miles between ports, often against the tide. Then again, he seems to have been a model of Victorian determination to the point of pigheaded stubbornness, insisting on overcoming nature when a real seaman (which he was not) would have worked the tides.

He seems to have been mostly powered, while doing this, by half-pints of sherry with raw eggs mixed in

Pete

I am reading the same book

really interesting

he did the trip in 1869 I think

Middleton weighed well under 11 stone - so not a big bloke by any means

he also talks about oar singular... but does not say how he did it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0gXx2e7ShE

I have paddled the slug many miles - but generally with the stream or tide - just as a way of putting the boat in the best place

enthusiastic bow paddling is frequent to turn the boat though when it goes aground

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_-ELBg9gjw

the slug weighs a tonne

the same as the Katie L so I am hoping that it will be just as easy to paddle

Dylan

 

[njsail]

you might be surprised of the progress a set of oars can make. Many years back I was in New York Harbor in the US aboard a 26 foot Colgate sloop and the engine died. It's a very busy harbor and there was no wind. We looked around below and found some paddles which I thought was a strange find. We paddled our way back to the dock with the US Coast Gaurd in a RIB running next to us asking if we needed help. They weren't amused by our alternate means of propulsion. We did it successfully and we were all a little surprised how easily the 26 foot boat moved with paddle power.

 

[r_h]

Two key things for rowing a heavy boat:

1. Long and well-balanced oars

2. Arrange it so that you can row standing up - that way you're simply leaning your bodyweight against the oars, which gives much more power for a lot less effort.

 

[Greenheart]

Interesting stuff. I was looking at a 'Victorian Farm' programme, and an 'olde-worlde engineering' show the other day, and found myself thinking how enviably lean & hardy those coal-shovelling, bellow-pumping, plough-sharing, gaff-hoisting men must have been...

...a bit more rowing wouldn't do any of us any harm! Isn't there any record of small cruisers a century ago, pre-petrol, carrying oars?

Considering how many threads on the forum are concerned with small sailing yachts whose unreliable diesels make their owners sweat, plus the number of owners who are routinely frustrated by the wind dropping within sight of the mooring, I'm surprised not to see sweeps on most small yachts...

...they're no great investment, totally reliable, maintenance-free, never temperamental and less attractive to thieving scum, than an o/b. Useful when feeling for the bottom too, or for fending off PWCs...

 

[prv]

found myself thinking how enviably lean & hardy those coal-shovelling, bellow-pumping, plough-sharing, gaff-hoisting men must have been...

In that case, I have the perfect exercise routine for you: http://www.shovelglove.com/

Pete

 

[YachtAllegro]

I believe rowing is not uncommon in some races - a friend has certainly rowed his Contessa 32 in that situation, making significant progress, I believe.

Cheers
Patrick

 

[rotrax]

I believe rowing is not uncommon in some races - a friend has certainly rowed his Contessa 32 in that situation, making significant progress, I believe.

Cheers
Patrick

Alec Rose just after the start of the first Transatlantic Single Handed Race reported Blondie Haslar using sweeps to get away from cliffs where the tide was taking him. In "My Lively Lady".

 

[Greenheart]

In that case, I have the perfect exercise routine for you: http://www.shovelglove.com/

Pete

Hmm, tempting, though what SWMBO would say about finding her glass-topped table smashed, I don't know.

I'm thinking that rather like getting an extra knot from the tide, rowing when the boat is just sailing along at a couple of knots in a force 1.5, will feel rewarding and fairly effortless, and add useful VMG to the day's distance covered.

It'd certainly help let off frustration, if you'd been hoping to get somewhere sooner.

 

[gordmac]

I believe in the days of sailing ships no wind meant towing the ship with a boat being rowed by the crew, 16 hours a day or whatever of that would keep you fit!

 

[Greenheart]

I believe in the days of sailing ships no wind meant towing the ship with a boat being rowed by the crew, 16 hours a day or whatever of that would keep you fit!

I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps becalmed AZAB or Transat crews should be in their rubber round-tail tenders, paddling hard at the end of a long tow-line...

 

[prv]

I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps becalmed AZAB or Transat crews should be in their rubber round-tail tenders, paddling hard at the end of a long tow-line...

No point doing it that way, as you then have to drag the tender through the water as well as the yacht. The only reason the Navy did it like that is that you can't get an oar into the water from the deck of a 74-gun warship

Pete

 

[Greenheart]

No point doing it that way, as you then have to drag the tender through the water as well as the yacht. The only reason the Navy did it like that is that you can't get an oar into the water from the deck of a 74-gun warship

Pete

Pete, you've evidently never seen Dennis Hopper's rowable oil-tanker, in Waterworld. On second thoughts, don't bother...

 

[nathanglasgow]

Dufour Arpege 9.25m 3700KG came with sweep oar from new.Never tried it as sweep missing when we got her but the rowlock is there,fits into socket in middle of transom

 

[RobbieW]

Three Peaks Yacht Race

In the Three Peaks Yacht Race, currently under way, rowing is within the rules and part of the challenge - wonder if the skipper takes a drum along too