wilddog

Member

From: Devon

Registered: 22 Dec 2013

Posts: 143

Oar suggestions

I am pondering what length oars I should be getting for the Skerry.

Her beam is 4'9", so I rather suspect that a standard 6' oar might be a bit on the short side. The boat will be mainly used under sail, but some light rowing will be required from time to time when we have overshoot the moorings for the pub etc.

Anyone have a thought on this...?

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Built a Skerry!

DerekD

Member

Registered: 12 Aug 2013

Posts: 33

Re: Oar suggestions

There is a formula for calculating oar length but I'm not sure how well it works.

beam (inches) x 25 ÷ 14

Round this number up or down to the nearest 6" number.
For your boat that means 57" x 25 = 1425 ÷ 14 = 101.78 which rounds off to 8' 6" which seems to fit with your thoughts that 6' oars may be short

Jan

Member

Registered: 23 Apr 2014

Posts: 4

Re: Oar suggestions

I am rowing my Skerry with 2 sets of oars. One set is 7 ft., the other 8.
7 ft. are easier to handle on choppy waters like the baltic sea. (Living in Kiel)
I find it difficult to lift long oars over short and steep waves.
If the water is smooth, 8 ft. are working very well.
So the formula of DerekD confirms my experience  very well.

Dinky Doris

Member

From: Wales

Registered: 25 Aug 2011

Posts: 23

Re: Oar suggestions

The one that I know about is:

distance between rowlocks+2 ÷ 14 x 25

This allows for an overlap of the oars.

However, since oars are only available in a certain number of lengths it is probably irrelevant.

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DD

DerekD

Member

Registered: 12 Aug 2013

Posts: 33

Re: Oar suggestions

I assumed most on here would make their own oars... if you can build a boat it seems like a small step