The Urban Oarsman

For the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society, I am teaching a how to make Oars workshop at our new site, formerly the Old Coal House building, now the Wooden Boat Centre at 60 East Columbia Street in New Westminster, BC.

This is how to leather the Oars you make (or buy). I first like to get between 3 to 6 coats of varnish on the oars (not the grips). The oar should be varnished under the leathers. I like to get the leathers on while the varnish is dry but still soft. Subsequent coats of varnish will help “lock” the leathers in place.

To leather my oars, I used:

A piece of Double shoulder special 7/9oz Veg-tanned leather from Tandy Leather, four pieces of 8½” by 11” paper for patterns, a ruler, Scissors, a pencil, leather punch, big sewing needles, scotch tape, waxed twine, a 33 cm. by 38.1 cm. Ziploc bag and Snow Guard.

How thick should your leather be? The guiding factor I use is the max diameter plus double the thickness of your leather is less than the inside diameter of your preferred oarlock. In my case, max inside diameter of my oarlocks is 2  5/16″.  The diameter of the oar at the leather is 1 7/8″ plus two times the thickness of the  leather (1/8″) is 1/4″.  This gives me a diameter at the leather of 2 1/8″. I will have 3/16″ of “wiggle room” at the oarlock.

Step One: you measure your oars to determine where your leathers should go. The measurement you begin with is the distance between your oarlocks. There are many oar placement formulas out there. I use the Phil Bolger’s recommended method. Bolger wanted his oars to just clear each other at the boat centreline with the oars horizontal and eight twenty-fifths of the oar length inboard of the oarlock. I usually like to leave a little less so I never smash my thumbs together (I have a bit of a bad habit of locking my thumbs over the end of the handle of the oar while rowing). I want my oars to be at the 8/25th from the grip (or 17/25th mark from the tip of the blade) mark on the oar. This is where I put my button. This means that when I push my oars down to the button, I am at the 17/25 gearing spot. I can bring my oars inboard to reduce gearing, but I cannot put my oars further out to increase gearing…I can only make it easier to row. I am fine with that. I am not very good at holding my oars in the oarlock at the right spot …that is why I put my button where I want my oars to sit.

The Key Factor is to put your buttons wherever you want, as long as the rowing feels good to you. The rowing gods will not send lightning to strike you dead if your buttons are not exactly at 8/25ths of the length of the oar! These are Your Oars, so do what works best and feels best for you.

If you are good enough at rowing to be able to hold your oars where you want them at the oarlocks, you can may not need a button at all and you should centre your leathers on the 8/25th mark, so you can gear up or down as you row.

Now in all honesty, I never change my gearing. My leathers could be only slightly longer that the width of the oarlock “horns” or “arms”. To protect the oar the leathers would only need to be an inch or two long, but, that does not look right. If you are going to change your gearing while rowing, you need a leather that is long enough to do so, so no matter what your gearing is, as long as you are rowing on the leather on your oar. Bolger shows his leathers as being 6″ long (Small Boats, International Marine, 1973, pg 30 & 31) …Some other authors go a long as 14″. As long as your leathers protect your oars from wear at the oarlock, the length is an aesthetic decision you must make. Whatever looks good to you. I am an 11″ leathers man myself.

The longer the leather, the less likely the leather is to slip on the oar.

Step Two: I am Using a 8½” by 11” piece of paper for a pattern, so my leathers are 11″ tall by the circumference of the oar. The circumference measurement is dependent on how much your leather shrinks or expands when wet-out. Take a test piece of leather (say 6″ by 6″) let it soak overnight and remeasure it to see how your leather changes when wet-out. If the leather expands when wet, deduct the extra so you end up with a ⅛” to ¼” gap. If the leather shrinks when wet, add to your measurement so that you still get a ⅛” to ¼” gap. On your paper pattern, mark where the button will be. Tape it to the oar with the button mark ½” past the 8/25th mark (where you want your oarlock to be). Mark on your paper pattern where the paper overlaps. Mark where the paper ends on the blade side, so you know where your leathers will go.

Another trick you can try is to use a strip of your leather (say the ½” by 18” strip for the button) to determine the around the oar measurement. This will allow for the thickness of the leather.

Remove the paper, draw a line to connect the two marks. Draw another line, ⅛” to ¼” further in from the first line. You want your soaked piece of leather to be ⅛” to ¼” smaller so you will have a gap that you will later pull tight. ( ⅛” to ¼”? how stretchy is your leather when wet?) Cut out the pattern. For my flat blade spoons this is 11″ by 5¼”. My button will be a strip of leather that goes twice around the oar, about 11″ long. A word or two about buttons. I use my button to help hold the oar at the correct (for me) spot at the oarlock. Two wraps of leather is fine for this. If you want your button to keep your oarlocks on your oars, say with Scotty strongbacks or any round oarlock designed to stay on the oars, you must make sure that the button stands proud enough to keep the oarlocks from falling off of the oars at the grip. Your button may have to do two jobs, oar placement and oarlock retention.

Make a paper pattern for all of the oars you are going to leather. Transfer the pattern to the leather. With my leather, I draw a line 11″ from the bottom of the piece. using the paper patterns, I mark on the leather where to cut.

I have four ½” strips at the beginning and four 11″ by the circumference of the oar less ⅛” (I am not going to stretch my leather much).

Using a pair of heavy-duty scissors, I cut the patterns out.

I find that it is too hard to just sew through the leather so I punch holes to sew through.

Step Three: On the rough side of the leather, I draw a line at least a ¼” in from the edge and mark the lacing holes every ¼” . You can use whatever measurement you want, just end up with an odd number of holes. Every 10cm would work just as well. I would not go any closer than ¼” as when wet, the leather is soft…do not want it to tear.

Punch out the holes…obviously, the longer the leather is the more holes to punch. I have never tried drilling them out. If you do not have a punch, I suggest that you buy one when you buy your leather…Talk to the sales clerks, and tell them what project you are working on. They may have some good suggestions for you.

Step Four: Having punched all of the holes, I put the leathers and button strips into a large (33 cm. by 38.1 cm Ziploc bag and add water…

I will let the leather soak overnight (however, an hour will do). I use room temperature water NOT hot water! Hot or boiling water will make the leather hard and unworkable.

A couple of extra tools may be helpful. A pair of pliers, a corkscrew and two small diameter wooden blocks (I used the cut-off grip ends of my oars from when I cut them to size).

When completely saturated, my leather went from 1/8″ to 3/16″ in thickness!

Another way of cutting your leathers to size is to cut the leathers Oversize, say 11″ by the circumference plus ¼” (bigger than your oar circumference!). Mark the holes ¼” on a line ⅜” from the edge. Do not punch the holes, soak the leather first. When the leather is saturated, remeasure the oar and then cut the leather to fit. If you have to cut the leather on the long edge to fit the circumference with a ⅛” gap, use a sharp knife and a ruler (on a breadboard). Now punch the holes on the ¼” marks, ¼” from the edge. I found wet leather easier to cut and punch than the dry leather.

Step Five: With the leathers thoroughly soaked, I begin to sew them on. I have the 8/25th point (where the oarlocks will be on the oar while rowing). I put the leather there and start sewing from the Blade end up to the grip end. This way I will finish at the button end of the leather and the button will cover where I tie the threads together.

Now the big question! Stitches Up? Down? on the front side? on the back side? I think that this is mainly an aesthetic consideration. Gwragedd Annwn’s spoon oars (with over 1500 nautical miles on them) have the stitching resting against the oarlock. The oarlock “wears” on them with every stroke. No issues so far. I use fairly thick ⅛”+ leather and perhaps the stitches settle deep enough into the leather so the stitching does not wear.

For the flat spoons I have made, I am putting the stitching “Up”, where they should wear the least against the oarlock. I will be able to see the stitching with every stroke. I will see how it looks and if I like the look.

After I have leathered the oars, I take a rolling pin and roll out the leather. This helps the leather to fit tight to the oar and helps seat the stitching.

If the stitching is a little loose, I use a corkscrew (on my Swiss Army Knife) to pull it tight.

For the flat blades, I will put the stitching on the bottom (power face) side of the oars.

If you need to get more tension, wrap the lacing around a block and pull. If you are having trouble with pulling/pushing the needles through the holes, use a pair of pliers to pull the needles with.

Step Six: Buttons, Buttons, where do the buttons go?

Since Gwragedd Annwn is at home, I took my newly leathered oars out and put them into the oarlocks, sat in the boat and made sure that my thumbs had clearance. I marked where the buttons should go. I had measured right.

I took the 18″ by ½” strips of soaked leather and cut bevels in the ends with a sharp knife. I patted them dry with paper towel. I gave them a tug to stretch them. If you are using your button to keep “Captive” oarlocks on the oar, make sure that you have a long enough piece that when wrapped around the oar stops the oarlock from coming off of the oar….Oh, and now is the time to put the oarlock on! If you are using Scotty Strongbacks, make sure that the flat side of the “P” will be on the forward side of the oar. You want to be rowing against the pin. If you are using symmetrical captive oarlocks, any way will do.

I laid the strip next to the oar and spread a line of Titebond II glue down the centre of the strip.

I then wrapped the strip around the leather at the end with the end knot.

I secured the wound strip with a thick rubber band. I turned the button until the beginning end and the ending end were opposite each other.

I then took a hose clamp and used it to clamp the button loosely . Make sure that the layers are on top of each other. Tighten. If your button shape distorts, undo the clamp and re-align. The blade side of the button should be the straightest.

Step Seven: Wipe off excess glue and put aside and let dry.

If your hose clamps are not wide enough and leave a mark on the button that looks like this (and you do not like the look):

There is a fix for this…it uses a piece of 1″ by 12″ sheet metal flashing. I bought mine at the hardware store. You could also use a piece of cut-up 1 litre pop bottle. You need one strip for every button.

The method is to use the hose clamp to “clamp” the button, squeezing out all of the excess glue/water then take off the hose clamp, wrap the button with the flashing strip and re-apply the clamp. Tighten.

I do the same for all of the oars. The leather will shrink as it dries.

Step Eight: When the leather is thoroughly dry and warm, I rub Snow Guard into them to seal, waterproof and protect the leather. Put the oars somewhere warm (in the sun) for the Snow Guard to soak into the leather. In cold weather, I have heated the leathers with a Hair-Dryer to melt the Snow Guard into the leather or left them by the fireplace.

After the Leathering is done, I put some more (to total at least 12) coats of varnish on the oars. The additional coats will help “glue” the leathers in place.

Step Nine: Go Rowing!!!

Mike

Gwragedd Annwn has “D” section red cedar cupped spoon oars. They are 8’6″ in length and have a blade area of ≈125 square inches. I have two sets, sized for the fore and aft rowing positions. The fore pair weigh 4lbs. 13oz. and 4lbs. 13.6oz.; the after pair weigh 4lbs. 9.10z. and 4lbs. 8.2oz. They all have lead weights in the grips for balance. They have performed very well for me. After several thousand nautical miles of rowing, I have made some modifications to Gwragedd Annwn’s cupped spoon oars.

I felt that I had overbuilt the oars. I felt that they were heavy in the blade.

The first step is to rip off the splines from the 9′ cedar 2″ by 6″ (my oars will finish at 8′ 6″). The splines are the two opposite edges of the 2″ by 6″. The rounded edges will mean less wood to shave off later. The next step is to set the saw blade to 10° and rip the rest of the 2″ by 6″ into two trapezoid shafts.

The wide base of the trapezoid will rest against the oarlock, i.e., faces forward, the narrow top of the trapezoid (the powerface of the oar blade) faces aft.

After marking the blade shape profile on the blade blank, I carefully cut the spoon blade out.

After you cut the spoon oar blade blanks, mark the blade shape onto the blank.

After you mark the spoon oar blade blanks, you cut them in half, down the middle to make two “wings” to fit onto your trapezoid shaft.

I have not cut the blade shapes yet. I will use my jigsaw to cut them out later.

I used a ¼” round-over bit in my router to shape the narrow top of the trapezoid and a ¾” round-over bit for the wide base of the trapezoid shaft.

I set up the router in a router table and carefully ran all of the edges through it. I finished off the rounding-over with a 5″ random orbit hand sander. I then sanded with the grain to remove the sanding marks. Sadly no photos of the sanding process.

Now I know that I am some sort of varnish heathen…but let me explain. I have a cedar deck railing on my house that is varnished. I have refinished it twice in 30 years, most recently two years ago. For the railing, in the heat of the summer, I take a can of varnish and keep applying it until the can is empty. Coat after coat, as soon as the previous coat is dry to the touch. I do not worry about insects, dust, pollen etc. The varnish is for protection!
No varnish failure on the deck yet. I am sorry to say that I treat my oars in the same way. Lots of coats. In the winter it takes a long time for the varnish to dry “hard”, in the summer not as long.

My other heathenistic varnishing thing is: I like my varnish to be warm when I apply it. Seems to “flow” easier, go on smoother, cover better, and result in less “drips”. In the winter, I warm it up by putting it onto my “plant-pot” heater. In the summer, not really a problem.

I am leathering the Oars. I determine where 8/25th of the oar is. This is the accepted spot for the oarlocks. I take a piece of leather, about 12″ long and wide enough to go around the oar less ⅛”. ¼” from the edge, I punch holes along the edge every ¼”. I soak the leather in room-temperature water (in a baggie) overnight. Do not use hot water…it will ruin the leather. I use some waxed Sailmaker’s twine and baseball stitch the sides of the leather together. Two needles at the same time. Do not pull the leather together so tightly that you rip the leather…it will be pretty soft. If you are worried about the leather shifting after it has dried, there are a couple of things to try. I put some more coats of varnish on my oars after leathering. Varnishing right up to the leathers allows some varnish to seep under the leathers, glueing them in place when the varnish dries. Two or three coats of varnish will stick the leathers in place. You could also try smearing the oar under the leather with Titebond II glue before you sew them on. When you are happy with where your oars sit on the oar-collar, you can put on the buttons.

My leathers are stitched to the oars and I am going to fix the buttons. I like to have my buttons at the maximum gearing that I intend to use. In this set-up, I can always “gear-down”. I cut about a ½” strip of leather, soak it overnight and use Titebond II to glue it onto the leathers. Hose clamps provide the clamping pressure. I do not nail the leathers to the oars.

When the leathers are thoroughly dry, I rub them with “Snow Guard”, a leather waterproofing treatment. (I bought mine at Marks Workwear House) I leave the oars in the sun to warm the leather so the Snow Guard really soaks in. I keep a jar of Snow Guard in the boat and coat the leathers at the beginning of each row so the oars move easily during the stroke.

For a full article on leathering oars, see “Leathering Oars”.

The decoration is printed on “Onion Skin” tracing paper. I cut the decoration out, and put a coat of varnish onto the oar. While the varnish is still wet, I put the decoration on…and varnish over it.

The procedure for balancing the oars is to get into the boat, dip the oar into the water, use a scale to determine how much weight to put into the grip so the oar just floats with the blade below the surface. This does not have to be done in the field, I did it by putting a big cooler full of water beside Gwragedd Annwn, placing the oar into the oarlock and floating the blade in the cooler. I used fishing weights to determine how much lead rod to put into the oar grips. The weight was similar but different for each oar.

So that is how I made Gwragedd Annwn’s Cupped Spoon Oars. The additional small leather collars towards the blade are to hold them in position when using the transom sculling notch. I also use my oars to determine the water depth. See my post “How deep is the water”

Mike

The first step is to buy a clear, straight piece of Douglas fir for the spar.

3½” by 3½” Douglas fir for the spar.

The yardarm needs to be a little over 10′ long…this piece will be long enough.

Step one is to knock off the corners and go to eight sided.

I use the circular saw guide to cut off the corners.

I will use the power planer to make the spar sixteen sided.

I use some shock cord and my workmate to hold the spar for power planing, rotating  the spar after each pass.  I can move the shock cord enough to get the planer past it on each pass.

After the rough rounding, (16 sided then 32 sided) I use my sanding jig to fully round the spar.

A sanding belt and this driving wheel chucked to a drill complete the sanding jig.

If you go to my “A Sailing Rig for Gwragedd Annwn…The Mast”     post, you can see how I make the jig.

finished spar with a few (7! soon to be eight) coats of varnish.

Now, on to the Mast:

Two unsuccessful dumb sheaves need to be filled for the new cobbled together lug sail.

The new dumb sheave is drilled into the mast and is faired smooth.

Fitting the mast step base.

The base is epoxied to the bulkhead and onto the keel.  It is also screwed to the bulkhead from  the inside and into the keel.

I will line the mast hole in the thwart with leather later.

The first time I made the belaying in hole too large.  I filled the hole with epoxy and re-drilled it.

The two belaying pins, made from surplus gardening tool handles.

I am going to add inspection ports to all of the buoyancy tanks.

New inspection hatch on the port side of the stern tank

Starboard inspection hatch marked out for cutting.

Inspection hatches fitted and glued in with sealant & screws.

From  cruising experience,  I decide to take out the forward inspection hatch and replace it with the deck box.  This will give me greater access to the dry storage in the forward buoyancy tank.

Forward deck box being used as a cutting guide.  I traced around the bottom of the box.

The old inspection hatch cut out for the installation of the deck box.

Bow storage box, bottom cut out, epoxied into place.  Heat lamp to help curing.

I us my small router to cut a circular grove into a thwart for my stove.

The base of the Trangia stove fits perfectly.  Now I can cook at sea!

My wife bought the Trangia stove new almost 40 years ago. (and has used it on a lot of hiking trips since then!)  Still works like a charm.  Boils fast, simmers slow.  A great stove. (You can still buy them from MEC…they do not offer the “kettle”option any longer but, you can order a kettle from the manufacturer) Now, I can take the thwart, flip it so the groove is on the top, put the stove in it and start cooking.  The thwart will fit anywhere along the two buoyancy tanks.

Old big jib sail I bought off of a friend years ago…Too bad he had cats!

I bought a old Elna sewing machine because it could sew through six layers of sailcloth from the jib.

The Elan sewing machine I used to sew up the cobbled together Lug sail.  I cut the top and bottom off of the sail and hemmed it up using the Elna.  I kept the bolt rope in the sail, sewing it to the top, The bolt rope was already in the luff and I sewed it into the foot of the sail.  The black disks in the tray allow me to do very fancy stitching…I only straight and zig-zagged.

In this photo, you can see that this is a jib with the top and bottom cut off and hemmed.

I put eyelets every foot or so along the top edge.  I kept the rope luff on the sail and sewed it to the top and foot of the sail.  I guesstimated the curve to go against the yard.

Fitting the mast to the sail.

Lug sail laced to the yardarm. (sitting on my other boat, “Snowdrop” a clinker Turner lifeboat)

OK, so I hoist the lug sail and see how well it fits!

Looks a little too long, I need to cut off some of the bottom or get a higher mast.

I mark and cut off some of the sail at the bottom and re-hem the sail.

You can see in the photo where I have marked the centre of effort of the sail.

Here is the final sail fitting, I have sewn on a Canadian flag.  The sail is now about 85 square feet.

I still have to make a rudder for Gwragedd Annwn.

I use a Taser rudder for parts.

Using the Taser rudder as a guide, I glue up some 4/4 oak for the rudder blade.

The streaks you see is the epoxy glue.

Rudder blank being fitted to  the stern of Gwragedd Annwn.

I fit the blank to the stern of Gwragedd Annwn, using the rudder pintles to fit the gudgeons to the transom of Gwragedd Annwn.  The gudgeons are bolted to the transom.  ( the pintles are bolted to the rudder as well)

After everything is fitted, I dissemble and varnish the rudder.

I make up a new tiller as well using the old Taser hardware.  The hose in the picture is part of the dust removal system in my shop.

Gwragedd Annwn’s temporary “test leeboard”, an old Enterprise centreboard.

I will tie the test leeboard to the gunnel to determine where Gwragedd Annwn’s centre of lateral resistance is and where the leeboards should go.

I now have enough done to take Gwragedd Annwn out for a test sail.  Will she actually sail well?

I take all of the gear down to the Club, fit it to Gwragedd Annwn and out we go.   I forget the camera and GPS.  No bailer either.  I row her out past the fishing pier and hoist the sail.  There is between 5 and 10 kms of wind.  I have a bit of a hard time hoisting the sail high enough to keep the luff tension tight.  Will have to fix that…a two to one hoist?  Theoretically Gwragedd Annwn has enough lateral resistance with her hull shape to sail without a centreboard or daggerboard or leeboards.  I watch her stern wake….I can see that she is slipping to leeward. I attach the makeshift daggerboard and try again.  This time there is no discernible drift visible in her wake. I move the makeshift leeboard forward and aft to find Gwragedd Annwn’s centre of lateral resistance…where the helm feels best balanced.  She sails well, feels fast for the wind speed, and tacks easily.  I feel that her rudder could be a little bigger.  After an hour or so, I head back to HSC…The sailing test has been a total success!!!

Sadly no photos……

Based on the success of the sailing test, I am going to get a “real” sail made…Sadly, my local sailmaker has retired and his shop is closed.  I look for lug sails  on line and find that the Goat Island Skiff lug sail is almost the exact same size as my sail, probably within 5% or less.  The sails are a deal!  I order one from Duckworks in Port Townsend. Most likely will have to make a new taller mast and a longer yardarm.  The centre of effort of the sail may be significantly different than my sail so I cannot fix my leeboards permanently. I will have to wait for the new sail, make a mast and yardarm to fit and re-determine where the leeboards should go.

There are things I can work on now…..

I will make the rudder blade bigger…Oh, yea, I have to make the leeboards too.

Gluing up the “good” leeboards.

I break a clamp gluing up the leeboards.

The two leeboards roughed out, ready for foil shaping.  The convention is to have the leading edge rounded and the trailing edge tapered about 3 to 4 times as long as the leading edge.

Between the two of them, there will be more surface area in the water than the cobbled-together leeboard I tested Gwragedd Annwn with.

I round the leading edge of the leeboards and taper the trailing edge about 4 to 1.  Sand and varnish. (many times)

I  remove all of the hardware and cut the rudder down the middle and biscuit joint in a middle piece.  I also glue in a piece for the rudder hold-down bracket.  I am gong to move the tiller bracket , so I fill in the bolt holes  with bamboo skewers and epoxy.

The rudder also needs a tiller extension, so I make one.

I have a tiller extension fitting from another boat.  Tiller extension fitting in top centre of photo.

Some of my salvaged fittings.

I cut a tiller extension to mirror the tiller I made before.

Varnishing the tiller extension.  Might as well put a few more coats on the tiller as well.

Rudder and tiller final.  That is a Halloween decoration castle in the background.

Everything is ready for another test fitting…I do not have the new sails yet, however, I can still do some test fitting…

I take the leeboards down to the Club and tie them onto Gwragedd Annwn.

I have to come up with a better attachment than this…I make a plan!

I stare at the leeboard for a while and come up  with this attachment support.

The rope (or could be a 3/8″ bolt) fits through the top of the support.  It could be attached to a cleat on the support.  I add an additional 3/4″ piece on the outboard side of the support.  this will allow me to shape the support to allow the leeboard to parallel the keel and not the curve of the hull where the leeboards are.  Again, this will depend on the test fitting.

The support blocks glued up next to one of the two plant-pot heaters I use to keep my shop from being damp.

I shape the leeboard supports and give them a coat of varnish, assemble the leeboards:

Expeditions await!!!

Hope to see you on the water soon,

Mike