Feb 6. Clearwater

The south Idaho guys (Tiger, Max and Clay) all say that the Clearwater is a good river to bust my chops on, so what the hell. Its 45 degrees down there today. Let's get going. As usual, we didn't get into the water until 1pm. I gotta get moving earlier in the morning. (Retired Lazy)

Captain Doofus ready to go down with the ship. We launched at the rest stop just below Lenore. Should have launched another half mile upstream at Lenore, just to get into some rough water around the bend here. Next time. 

Old Beta quote "The back of Bryan's head. Not very interesting, but neither is the front."

The sun can out right after launch, and it was looking rosy, warm and promising. Then the overcast came and the headwind hit after the first hour, and we were quite chilled by takeout at 4 pm. 

Brian and still the back of Bryan. I've got that dumb, confused "is this camera working" look, but I suppose I deserve to be made fool of. 

There's the front of Bryan -- aka "Lame".  I have an idea that we are going to do many foolish things together, but only on the weekends until he retires. 

Broad, gentle river here. 

"Me doing my best Kate Winslet impression. Haven't got the ass for it. 

Here is the boat at the takeout, just above the bridge to Kendrick. 11 miles, which we hurried through because of the chill. 3 hours, but fishing would be much slower. We went through a number of rapids, some with waves as big as 3 ft, with some pretty big submerged rocks in them.  I gotta say that the boat just didn't give a rat's ass. Hardly upset it at all. Not a hint of water in the boat. Real easy to point and skitter, even in the middle of the Rapids. Damn, drift boats are fun. And very comfortable. Very low wetted surface and draft, so the wind blew it easily when the oars were not in the water. Had to row forward through the calm stretches against the wind to keep headway. Probably did this for an hour total, but I didn't have to work hard. Just a chop down and slight forward push every 10 seconds to keep the boat moving with the river and facing downriver. 

Sun's going down. Good time to get out.  

That was well worth doing. As Bryan said "Best thing I've done all week."  In years for me. (No offense, family). 

Feb 5. First Launch

Well, I ran out of things to do, so I guess it's time to put in or shut up. But I am a chicken, so even though this boat is designed for rough water, I thought I'd launch it on my home waters of Spring Valley Resevoir. No current and wind, just to get an idea of how the thing rows. Plus, Spring Valley is only 15 miles from my house. 

Turns out, Spring Valley is still covered in ice and it snowed a foot out there last night. We had a long deep freeze in December, and even though it's been in the low 40s for a month, it still hasn't thawed. 

It's still plenty thick for walking and ice fishing. I considered launching the boat on the lake anyway, just to see how far it would row in the snow, but I had no one with me to take the silly pictures, so I didn't. 

Clear back through Moscow and Pullman to Wawawai -- an hour and a half drive, it's almost 50 degrees down on the Snake River. It's like summer down there. It's an easy single-handed launch and recovery of this boat with the roller on the back of the trailer. Plus the boat is very light. You can see that it floats only 2" deep when empty. 

The varnished interior glows in the afternoon sun. Thanks to Mike Hamby for telling me to finish the interior bright and not paint it. He was right. 

I tried some minimal maneuvering on this maiden voyage. It rocks easily from side to side, but has plenty of reserve stability due to the highly flared sides. The further over you go, the more buoyancy goes into the water. And the thing spins on a dime. 180 degrees on one stroke. I was out there spinning didos and yucking it up. It'll have to wait until summer to do a full swamp test. 

Old dork selfie while standing in the angling stand with the Snake River breaks for a backdrop. 

Easy to load up, even with a quartering tailwind of 10 mph. 

Feb 4. Finishing Touches

After a bit of modeling and mocking up, I determined that the oarlock should be about the top edge of my kneecap. So I drilled the oarlock holes and stuffed them in there. Ready to row. 

Trailer mud flaps, to keep water out of the back of the lights. Not much left to do. 

Oarlock mounted. As usual, I learned enough on the first one to do the second one well. 

This is all the steel not used in the trailer. I'm getting better at estimating materials. 

Feb 3. Rope Work

The oars need a chafe guard bellow the button. Leather can be used but I thought I'd try rope. I thought the oar was too large diameter at the button to add more that 1/8" nylon rope, so this is the only color I could find in that diameter. On testing it I found the fit in the oarlock loose. Now, you can adjust the width of the oarlock by bending, but I decide to leav the oarlocks and use 3/ nylon rope for the chafe guard, which came in better colors. Also, I bought the two piece button from Sawyer oars. 

Here is Nan modeling the sweet balance and lightness of these oars. Note the hunter green chafes, to match the boat. 

I took a couple of days and a small heater to dry the varnish on the floor, so now I can weave the seats in earnest. Warp all done. Had to tighten it 3 times. 

A third of the woof done. Each row has to be tight. 

All done. Two plus hours work. 

The rear seat uses non-stretch synthetic rope strung horizontally. That's why it's this color. I don't like it much yet. It might be better if I could get it tighter, but that's not easy. Lots of knuckle scrapes doing this. 

Feb 2. Details

Chamfer and varnish oarlock blocks. Weld end plates on open trailer beam ends. Paint trailer. Varnish oars. Etc. getting close now. Just piddly stuff to work on. 

I glued in the oarlock blocks to stand 3/16" proud of the sheer clamps. You can't have sharp edges on that so I hand chamfered the edges to a 45 degree bevel with a chisel. There is no other way to do it due to the curve and tight quarters. The bevel is wavy, but effective. These kind of rough-hewn details are really what make a boat personal. I put every wavy line in this boat myself. 

From the side. 

Feb 1. Seat Work and Varnish Everything

I got a little over excited about getting the boat done and started weaving the nylon rope before I had varnished the inside of the boat. It all has two coats of plastic but it still needs a coat of spar varnish for UV protection. 

Here is the start of the woven front seat, all of which I would have to take out to apply a coat of varnish, then put it all back in later. 

That's a 1 1/2" thick piece of oak with lots of buts in all the holes. I brings home the phrase "pushing a rope", because you can't push the flimsy role into the hole. To make it work, you have to tape this 1/8" dowel (stiffy) to the front of the rope. 

I mixed a fistful of sand into a pint of spar varnish and coated the floor and rear seat for UV protection and gription. Then I coated every other unpainted piece of wood on the top of the boat. Lotsa work. 

The rear seat carries a lot of tension on the unsupported underside of the frame, so it needs two 1/4" bolts of 10" lengths. You can't buy bolts in those lengths, so I had to use a die to thread both ends of a 1/4" steel rod. 

Here they are both installed, and varnished. Hey, they need protection too. 

The oarlocks arrived today. The best I could find. $50 each for cast bronze Cobras from Sawyer Oars. Nice. 

Jan 29. Oarlock Blocks

The oarlock blocks are where the oarlocks will be mounted. All the force of the oars are imparted to the boat right here. They look like a solid block of ash, but in fact are each made from 3 banana-shaped 3/4" thick pieces of ash. They're tough pieces that must be hand fit to the curve of the side of the boat. 

Here they are clamped into place between ribs 5 and 6. 

Side view. 

Jan 28. Glass the Oars

The book on oars I read shows a method to measure the flexibility of an oar, which is good to a point to relieve the stress on the body. But the boats and oars in the book were mostly Adirondack guide bots or Rangley boats, which, if you know your boats, are narrow beam, light boats meant to be to be portaged from lake to lake in upstate New York. Therefore in order to get enough inner loom for leverage they typically overlap the handles. Plus the flexibility of the oars is necessary because these boats are often used for a full day's pulling across lake after lake, sometimes into a headwind. This requires limber oars to relieve the constant stress. 

But our boat has a wide beam and drifts with the current of a river with sporadic rowing to position the boat. It's more like biking than walking in that you need lots of power for short periods and very little most of the time. Whereas rowing on flat water is like walking, in that you apply power all the time, walking up or down hill. 

Here is the method used to measure the flexibility of oars. I don't have a picture showing the whole setup, just the tip with the weight, but essentially you immobilize the paddle at the handle and the "button" (the oarlock) and then hang a 7-pound weight from the tip of the oar. Then measure the flex of the oar at the end of the loom and the tip of the paddle. I used a clamp and a half-empty can of paint for the weight, and the a-frame stand behind is for measuring the deflection. 1 1/4" in this case. 2" would be better for a full time pulling oar, but I think that's ok for a drift boat, whose oars are much less flexible (I'm guessing). 

Pine is light flexible wood, so I'm adding a layer of 6 oz fiberglass to the boar and the outer 2' of the loom. I'll let you know how well the oar works out. 

Jan 27. Oars Mostly Carved

Shaping the oars is done for 3 reasons 1) aesthetics, 2) smoother hydrodynamics, and 3) to reduce weight on the part of the oar outside the oarlock. 1 and 2 are pretty obvious, but most people don't know about 3. In an age where oars have been almost completely erased from use by internal combustion engines, and by assembly line manufacturing, the art of balancing and adjusting oars to the person for a specific use has been almost completely forgotten. An oar is much easier to use when the weight of the human's arms resting in the handle, combined with the ratio of the weight of the inner to outer loom makes it balance with the blade partially in the water. Buoyancy of the blade also must be accounted for. A human arm, when rested from the shoulder onto an oar handle in proper position will weigh 2 to 4 lbs. Surprisingly little. The outer loom and blade will normally outweigh a perfectly tapered oar by significantly more than this, and that is why we shave as much material off the outer loom and blade as possible and leave as much material on the inner loom as we can. Some balanced oars have lead drilled into the inner loom, much like spin balancing a car wheel.  The flex of the loom and blade under load must also be accounted for. More on that later. 

Here are the oars, shaved on the outer loom and left square on the inner. Handles are still a bit rough. 

And here are all the shavings from just one oar. I used a chisel and a block plane for this, and a sander. It takes about 2 hours for each oar. Good upper body workout. 

The beautiful pine shavings. Great fire starter. Maybe I should sweep. 

I also spoon the blade a bit. I could taper the blade to the center, but I chose to spoon them by shaving only one side in order to test out the doryman's strike. Ancient wisdom says that you can get propulsion from chopping the blade straight down into the water and also raising straight up if the blade is shaped like this, much like an airplane's wing provides lift. So a doryman's stroke is much shorter and vertically choppy. We shall see. I don't expect much. Above you see the flat front side (toward the bow, or facing the same direction as the oarsman). That also means there is now a right and left oar. 

The shaved back side. Hard to see the rounding. 

Maybe this angle shows it better. 

Jan 26. Carving the Oars

Today was supposed to be a beer brewing day because Clay will be here is 3 weeks and that's just about the right amount of time to brew and condition an ale. But while cleaning up the brewing area I had to walk a few things out to the shop, where I got grabbed by the oar project. Honestly, that's how it is with me. A partially completed project just pulls me in like I'm a moon orbiting a planet. I spent two hours shaping the first oar before I went back in and brewed "Hey Porter", my best porter recipe (primed with molasses -- yum)

Here is the loom tapered and semi-rounded, and the blade still untouched 

And here is 5 gallons of porter. Only $35 and 3 hours of work. That's about 70 cents a pint. Cheap! And much better than store bought. 

Jan 25. Oar Blanks

Long-winded story here. Ask anybody. The best oars for a drift boat are made by Sawyer, out of Gold Hill, Oregon. They have many models, from HEAVY solid ash oars to nice, light composite (half ash, half carbon fiber), all of which sell for $350 per oar in the 9' length I need. That's $700 ($850 if you count quality oarlocks and accessories) for non motorized propulsion. That's more than boat materials. I recognize that it's not likely that I can beat the quality of their oars, but I have time and have been spending that rather than money wherever possible to reduce the cost of this project. So I guess I'll try my hand at carving some oars. I can always go back and spend the money on good oars later when these don't work out. 

The three quick decisions I made were 1) pine 2) 8' and 3) shoal-ended. All three are counter to currently accepted ideas on drift boat oars. 

I have made pine kayak paddles much thinner than these oars and they have yielded a long service life. And pine is much easier to carve that ash. And lighter. The right finish can harden the outer shell of wood so that it will wear quite well. Besides, I'm just trying to see if I can get the shape right. 

I chose 8' because. Gary (Max) said 9 1/2' I calculated 8 1/2'. We decided to compromise at 9'. 

Here is the drawing I used to calculate the 8 1/2' length. It's drawn to a scale of one large square = 2'. That means that the oarsman must put the handles up and down 8 to 10" on each stroke. That seams little enough. There should also be an optimum ratio of inner to outer loom (inner loom is between the handle and the oarlock). I'll check the book on oars I read (yes, I'm so anal about stuff that I read a treatise on oars and rowing prior to selecting the oars for this boat). 

This is my entire boating library (except for the jazz fake books on the left). It includes books on designs, construction methods, navigation, and even places to go. 

And here is my collection of Woodenboat magazines -- every issue since 1992.  And my airplane library is much worse. 

The oar book (Oars for Pleasure Rowing, Andrew B. Steever, 1993) did say that you need different oars for different conditions (and different rowers, but more on that later). Windy days require short oars with small blades, and easy days can allow longer/larger. I figured I'd make the windy day oars first, which worked nicely with the pine because they should shoulder less load that longer ones and so be made from weaker material. 

Shoal-ended. That was just a whim. On Saturday I went down the Palouse River in a canoe (http://bzadvents.blogspot.com/2016/01/canoeing-palouse-river.html?m=1) and thought "wouldn't this be fun in a drift boat?"  Well, the Palouse River, even at near flood stage as it is now due to rain and much melting snow, is barely 20 yards wide and lots skinnier than that in places. So going to 16' span oars would be better than 18'. And it's shallow and rocky in many places. Hence the shoal-end oars which are really supposed to do two things, the most important of which is balancing the blade in the water on either side of the loom centerline no matter how deep it is in the water. This prevents the oar spinning in the lock. 

Here's how I tried to achieve this. I'd done it well before on kayak paddles, but I didn't much like my result in this case. Notice the diagonal lines on the pattern. Those are an estimate of water lines at various oar depths based on the angle of the oar in the water (shorter oars have higher angles). Just make sure that each diagonal line extends the same length on both sides of center. I don't like this pattern because I made it a bit too club footed in an attempt to get more blade in the water at shoal draft. In hindsight I think this is a bad idea. Plus if you're really worried about imbalance, twisting oars, you can get a collar that has a tab on the top that will ensure the oar always stays right side up in the oarlock. So this whole balance/shoal thine is probably a waste. 

Given all those quick decisions described at length above, here is the oar blank all glued up and clamped. The loom (the middle part of the oar) has to be round-ish and about 2 1/4" at the oar lock (known as "the button" in the old literature). And that includes the chafe sleeve that extends at least 6" either side of the button. This can be made of leather or wound rope. To get the loom to sufficient diameter, I glued up three pieces of pine, the center of which has the actual blade. You can cut all this from one 1" X 10" piece of pine, which is the only size board that was reasonably clear of knots at the building supply. And that's the other reason I went with pine. $20 in pine for both oars. Ash would have cost $80 plus for each, mostly because there were no boards of suitable size. 

Here's the other oar. 

I'm amazed you've read this whole entry. A lot of thinking goes into oars. Look at it this way. When you buy a bike, you get one sized for you and then you have it adjusted to fit you. Think how inefficient it would be for a grown man to ride a 15" frame, not to mention how foolish he would look. The same is true not only for various-sized boats, but also for each different human in that boat.