|
Seaworthy Rowing
It suddenly dawned on me one bright October
morn that barring miracles or extraordinary effort there
would be no Christmas cruise that year. I’m not sure
when the idea first began but it wasn’t long before
the notion of a boat for “cruising under oars”
was rapidly becoming a reality. One of the considerations
of course was time, the way to build boats really quickly
is not to work like lightning, it is to build boats that
are very simple and relatively small!
 The
first job was to decide on a boat. I had reservations about
the shapes of some craft, the construction method or costs
of others and concerns about the seaworthiness of most so
design it yourself seemed to be the order of the day.
What eventuated was a plywood dory with a tombstone transom
(it’s not really a dory otherwise); a nicely curved
stem to force some shape into the sides forward, a strong
sheer kicking up aft to a high stern (thoughts of going
surfing) with the maximum beam (further aft than is traditional
to make the boat run straight in heavy following seas).
Added to this is a big skeg for directional stability and
to balance the windage, buoyancy tanks under the seats and
a sculling notch in the transom and the boat is looking
very much the part.
 After
the usual laborious arithmetic and fiddling with moments
and volumes, the sketched ideas were turned into lines drawings
and the drawings into a 1/10 scale model.
For speed of building, the dory was built by “stitch
and tape” techniques which eliminated most of the
framing and all of the building jig. Basically flat panels
are cut to shape and then joined along the edges giving
the desired shape, some minimal framing carried the loads
from the rowlocks and the seats and the seats formed buoyancy
tanks in case of a major disaster.
P redetermining
the shape of the panels was the difficult part. In this
case I built the model over solid station frames and when
finished wrapped light card around the boat, traced around
the edges, cut the shape out and transferred it to graph
paper making scaling up an easy Job.
Building the boat did not take long, a few hours here and
there over a couple of weeks saw her ready to paint and
the total cost of about $250 did not hurt the pocket too
badly.
I can carry the boat on my own, essential for a boat that
will be used almost entirely single handed - she weighed
in at 42kg dry.
She rows extremely easily,
better loaded than light because of the heavily rockered
bottom. It cannot- be driven past hull speed even by a very
strong person but is wonderful for eating up the miles at
a moderate pace. I’ve covered 3 1/2 measured statute
miles in an hour without busting my boiler and have travelled
25 miles in six hours with tidal assistance.
 The
light weight and the narrow waterline beam combine to make
the boat feel a little tender when unloaded, especially
when the rower is unused to the wiles of dories. I carry
about 30 litres of water in plastic jerrycans which improves
her stability and also helps the boat carry its way.
Like most fine ended boats she is pretty sensitive to trim,
if I find she needs to be a little bow down to stop her
blowing around broadside on while I try to row her to windward,
or conversely, stern down for downwind I have a ten litre
plastic container of water on a light line and toss it to
the appropriate end of the boat The line is so I can retrieve
it without moving from my secure seat amidships.
 A
full load of camping gear and provisions makes things easy,
the boat rides better down on her lines a little, and she
is much more stable. Rough weather in one of these is exhilarating.
The motion of the boat is very easy, especially in a beam
sea when the rowers position right on the centre of motion
about which the boat pitches so the oarsman doesn’t
get thrown about in a seaway. It is amazing to watch as
great foaming crests disappear under the gunwale without
any fuss.
The Light Dory has proven to be not only great for recreational
rowing but ideal for its intended job, a trip under oars
from Dargaville onto the Kaiparas northern reaches to Helensville
70 miles away in the south. It was a great holiday and a
story for another time.
L O A - 5.14M
- 16FT 8IN
BEAM - 1.26M - 49IN
WEIGHT - 42 KG - 92 LBS
DRAFT - 160MM - 6IN
|
