Oar lengths

[jimnmad]

I have a 16' dory that I built and it has three rowing stations. I have always been alone while rowing and so I've only used the middle spot. I have a friend wwho wants to row with me and he has a pair of 6' oars, I have a set of 8' oars. We are about the same size and strength. Would this work well at all? My common sense tells me that we would have difficulty rowing in unison. Any thoughts?

[Paul Pless]

Put you friend near the stern so he can't tell when your not rowing.

Sorry, that's the best I can give you, but I'm sure one of our more competent friends will be along shortly.

[Mrleft8]

The narrower the beam, the shorter the oar. I'd put your friend up front.

[jimnmad]

Actually, I was more concerned with whether two people could row in rhythm with each other. It would seem that the sweep of an 8' oar would requre more time to complete than the sweep of a 6' oar thereby making it difficult to row together efficiently.

[alteran]

Get married. Try rowing with her.

Then try rowing with this friend.

Rowing with the friend will be easy in comparison, no matter how you do it.

Al.

[Bruce Hooke]

I think you are right that you will find it hard to stay in time with each other with different length oars...

[htom]

The best solution would be to make two more 8' oars and use the fore and aft stations (assuming that those will have nearly the same beam.)

[Ken Buck]

In my 16' Lowell Surf Dory, a fairly broad-beamed dory at about 70" wide, I use a set of 9' (OK, actually 8-3/4) at the midship station, but on occasion when carrying a passenger, I'll row from the bow station using a set of 8' oars. The 9s are spruce and are light and very nice to use. The 8s are ash, considerably heavier but not bad; they're also my backup oars in case of disaster. On occasion, I've rowed amidships with the 8s, and they work quite well, but the length of the 9s feels better. However, the shorter oars feel better suited at the narrow bow station. On a narrower dory, 8s or 8-1/2s would probably work well amidships. Dories don't need extremely long oars, but beware of going too short, too. During the informal small boat race at the 2002 WB show, we rowed the 16' dory with a pair of rowers using the 8s at the bow and the 9s amidships, and it worked well. The length difference didn't matter. I think 6-footers would be rather short for most dories, even at the narrow stations, and probably wouldn't pair well with a set of 8s given the large size difference.

A good set of oars is well worth having - while it's possible to make do with most anything, having the right length for the job really makes it a lot more enjoyable. For the record, mine are from Shaw & Tenney, not cheap, but excellent and a good investment if you plan to spend a lot of time rowing. My original set of spruce oars are 10 years old and are as good as new. My spruce oars use their standard blade style, but my ash oars have their longer/narrower blade - seems to be a good compromise with the heavier oar. Happy rowing...

[Paul Reagan]

Most boats with three rowing stations are intended to have a single rower from the center station and tandem rowers from the fore and aft stations.Frequently this requires three different length pairs of oars.
While the ideal leverage ratio is 7 parts inboard and 18 parts outboard, if you use your center station oars at the next widest position, it is important to use oars at the other tandem station which will give you the same leverage ratio. If the leverage ratios are different, the rowers will be starting and ending their strokes at different times. Being out of synch like this makes for tough rowing.