Yuloh?? or bloody great rear end oar?

[Wild Dingo]

Ive been giving some thought to this freebie boat of mine that Im working on...

Now I will probably get me a wee outboard or hopefully a nice wee putt putt engine for her eventually...

but for now...

I was wondering about making a Yuloh I think thats what its called anyways... a bloody great oar out the aft end that yer swing on to move her along? gonna make a couple of oars but was thinkin of making this yuloh thingy as I reckon I could do with some exersize

So anyway... does anyone have any idea of how yer make this thing??? like an oar only bigger? does it have a definant shape or just like an oar? something different? or some other way or are there any plans out there I can get at?

Ideas thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated thanks in advance fellas and sheilas!

[Mrleft8]

Sounds like you're refering to what we call a "sweep" around here. Just a big long thin (narrow) bladed oar from what I've seen.... I think you'll enjoy the boat more with a small outboard though....

[Ian McColgin]

Sweep and yulo are different. A yulo is a specialized sculling devise. A sweep might be used for sculling but is best used over the side of the boat. So a sweep is not very good on a boat with poor directional stability. I seem to remember a yulo thread around here someplace and perhaps there was a WB article.

If you go yulo, follow a good pattern carefully. That bend in the shaft gets the blade angle right and the little handle sticking down from the main shaft helps in reversing the blade angle at each end of the stroke.

G'luck

[Venchka]

Here you go, Mate! Merry Christmas!
WoodenBoat Sculling
More Sculling-but may not work

Keep us posted-I'm interested in a yuloh too!

Cheers!

[N. Scheuer]

A couple of additional points:

The bend in a Yuloh's loom (shaft?) is critical. When the yuloh is drawn to and fro the bend will cause the blade to "crank", or rotate the shaft off vertical so that the blade will impart forward thrust, like a single-bladed propeller.

Since the handle end of a yuloh's has a line secured to the cockpit sole (or other location under the handle) to keep the handle at the proper elevation in relation to the yuloher (have I coined a new word?) the downward-projecting stick appears to be merely a way to control the pitch of the blade instead of serving as the primary means for inducing blade pitch. The curve in the loom, in conjunction with the lashing, will introduce pitch all by themselves.

I like a sculling oar better than a yuloh for several reasons. I sculled my old Dovekie, PIL-PEL a good many miles with one of her 10-ft oars resting in a bronze oarlock over the stern. First, an oar is simpler, and simple is generally better in my boats. Second, an oar is more versatile, as it can also be employed as a sweep over one side, like half a pair of oars. Lastly, and most importantly, an oar can be used to scull with the blade "flat", or horizontal, at the center, or rest position, whereas a yuloh's blade will be vertical at the rest position. I've found that the horizontal blade approach is more satisfactory for me in a large boat like a 21-ft Dovekie, on in my even larger 28-ft Shearwater, in which I hope to have a sculling oar available soon. Sculling with the "flat blade" approach causes less splashing for me, and behaves more like a "low gear" in large boats.

Of course you could make a Yuloh having a horizontal blade, but then it would no longer actually be a Yuloh. It might be more appropriately be called a "Wild Dingo Single-Blade Thrust Device".

The Shearwater, TRUE NORTH, of course has a big outboard motor, but I miss the sculling very much.

Good Luck, Moby Nick

[N. Scheuer]

Let me retract part of my earlier post (blush!).

Upon further reflection it would seem that the 90-degree crank handle on the operator's end of a yuloh is indeed very important, because it is used to COUNTER the shaft rotation induced by the bend in the shaft. So why is the shaft bent? Might wanta ask a Chinaman.

The blade of a yuloh must be oriented so that it behaves like a on-blade propeller in order to produce thrust. The correct orientation will also press the loom DOWNWARD into the stern notch instead of RAISING the loom out of the notch. Furthermore, it is downward pressure of the loom that makes lashing necessary; to hold down the operator's end of the loom so he doesn't have to exercise a lot of effort to PUSH it down.

Never actually used a yuloh, so you might say my dislike for them is only prejudice. But I have used a sculling oar a lot, and I consider them fun to become proficient with.

Moby Nick

[J. Dillon]

Got to put in my 2 cents here.

I experimented with Yuloh a little bit and constructed two of them. From my observation they will work great for what they are designed for, a boat with some heft or weight. In a small light weight boat I found it is a lot like the tail wagging the dog. A lot of energey is wasted in rocking the boat. It will move the boat but IMHO a pair of oars or even paddle would be better.

Now a keel boat with a few tons of weight the Yuloh would be a practical solution to moving around. But of course the Asians found that out a long time ago.

I still have my 16' yuloh collecting dust waiting for the right boat.

JD

[N. Scheuer]

So I spent most of this afternoon at work ruminating on why the Chinese, clever folks that they are, didn't figure out how a flat, or horizontal blade orientation wouldn't work more natually with a bent loom.

Then, when I got back home I went straight to my Junks And Sampans Of The Yangtze, and to my dismay discovered that all of the many illistrations of Yulohs did in fact show them with a horizontal blade. This means that as the grip-end is moved from side to side, the bend in the loom, which positions the fulcrum a bit above a straight line between grip and blade, will serve to rotate the blade the proper direction to impart forward thrust. In all illustrations the grip had a line extending down to the cockpit sole.

So what about the rudder-like vertical blades I seem to remember? What about that little crank handle on the grip end I've seen illustrated? Well, neither appears in Junks & Sampans Of The Yangtze. Furthermore, I can't find illustrations of such anywhere else in my library. This is mighty frustrating as I distictly remember seeing both.

Ah, well, it is reassuring, however, to know that the Chinese are every bit as clever as we might expect them to be.

Moby Nick

[jwaldin]

The Pardes used one. I think on 'Seraffyn'. Might have the spelling wrong. I think there's a pic in one of their books.

[Meerkat]

Originally posted by jwaldin:
The Pardes used one. I think on 'Seraffyn'. Might have the spelling wrong. I think there's a pic in one of their books.

You got Seraffyn's name right, but the Pardeys would be dismayed!

[jwaldin]

oh you mean there's another couple with similarily spelled names? And they also had a boat named 'Seraffyn?
Just when you think you've heard it all.
Best of the season to you and yours Meerkat.

[Ben Fuller]

Couple of points on the yuloh: if you find Sam's article and mine there are drawings. Rodger Taylor has drawings as well in his book on Elements of Seamanship. The one there can be a multi piece oar with bits bolted together.

The yuloh is blade heavy and the line keeps the oar at the correct angle. It and all the sculling oars used where people do this seriously are horizontal, designed for the falling leaf style stroke. For the yuloh the line also reverses the pitch at the end of the stroke so you don't wear out your wrist. This is where the crank or comes in: some of the Chinese oars fastened the line to a handle coming off the bottom of the oar so that the pitch change happens better. In every case the line needs to be fastened off center on the bottom: eye bolts or a lashing will work. The idea is that the operator does not have to push down and does not have to rotate the wrist.

Yulohs also have a socket fastened to them and use a ball as a pivot. Keeps the oar in place with no effort. You need some practice to keep the yuloh from jumping off the ball at least in little ones. I'm sure that the big ones for many did not have that as an issue.

[Lucky Luke]

I didn't know about the word:"yuloh"...although the item itself is what I see here all the time... Here, they "skull" with this huge bent "yuloh" (if that's the name...)to move around huge sampans, but a lot many other systems too. The most usual is a side oar (fitted with a small "handle") that they pull and push , standing up, with the weight of their body. Sometimes two oars almost "traditionnally" fitted, but that doesn 't get off the water and are actionned standing up too, and rotated by similar small handles....sometimes they sit down and use their legs, kind of "biking" movement. And in Myanmar (former Burma), they skull with one leg "around" the oar, standing up again....One thing they don't understand is rowing not looking where you go....like we do [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 12-26-2003, 04:30 AM: Message edited by: Lucky Luke ]

[Wild Dingo]

I can sure relate to that! get totally confused and disorientated when I try to row backwards... ugh! give me a yuloh or give me an outboard!