Thread: comments please on new boat design

That front rower looks very clever.

For your bilge pump, you're sitting on a seat which slides back and forth at least two feet each stroke. Mounting a small volume double action pump off your frame would not take much energy away from your rowing and still do a decent job of emptying the boat.

Check out this site Aaron - Witt Design Wooden Boats - boating finesse from Witt Design Pty Ltd - I know they're rowed in the open sea.

Originally Posted by Arron

Plus I would still like something lighter, slimmer and faster as I guess I"ve outgrown the Oxford a bit.

Ultimately, though, the real reason is that I like building boats, and its time to make another one.

cheers
Arron

G'day Arron
Lighter, slimmer & faster would appear to me to be the opposite direction to
ability to handle chap & waves, unless you are thinking submarine. All the
open water boats I've seen on the net are higher buoyancy to cope with
only part of the boat's length being supported by water. You might get
away with it if the boat is significantly longer, but then it has to be stronger
(and heavier built) to handle being supported at each end but not the middle
on larger, longer period waves...

I totally identify with "it's time to make another one" !!
Other than removing the thwart, off-setting the dagger-board case, & building
the as-designed moveable seat, there's very little left to 'tweak' on my Teal.
Having hardly used it since -finally- getting it to sail right, I'm loathe to take the
jigsaw to it again just yet...
cheers
AJ

G'day Arron
you've probably seen this Blog
ROWING FOR PLEASURE

I did like this one - nothing in common with your requirements other than the ability to handle rough water... ROWING FOR PLEASURE: Rowing Down Under

cheers
AJ

No, AJ, I hadnt seen that one about rowing down under - so thanks very much for posting it.

Since starting this thread I'm scaling back my expectation of just how rough I'll be able to row in. The problem is not so much the hull, but the whole ungainlyness of using long oars in a swell.

Since starting this, I"ve thought of a couple more design prerequisites.

1. I want to be able to go from having the boat on the racks in the garage to rowing on the water within 5 minutes. Thats how it is at the moment, so I'd hate to go backwards. I dont want to mess around with gear, or have things I need to assemble each time I go out, it just kills the enjoyment.

2. I think I"m going to have bungees on the deck, like a canoe. This is to hold down a paddle, and perhaps a paddle float. I need to be able to effect a self-rescue. If for example the welding broke up on the riggers I should be able to just salvage what I can, remove the oars and stash them under the bungees and paddle to shore like some type of sit-on-top canoe.

cheers
Arron

Originally Posted by Still Smilin'

Check out this site Aaron - Witt Design Wooden Boats - boating finesse from Witt Design Pty Ltd - I know they're rowed in the open sea.

Hi Peter,
that Derwent is really just a bulky version of my wherry - see the photo in the post that started this thread. The wherry is better able to take a chop then the Oxford Shell, but I have other plans for it. I'm intending to convert it to a two person rower, using fixed seats and short oars. Thats for a little further down the track.

cheers
Arron

G'day Arron
FYI - detail from a shell at the Hobart Wooden Boat Festival.
cheers
AJ

Amazing. THANKS VERY MUCH for posting those. I've bookmarked them cos I know I'll be studying the detail in those photos for days.

Its great just seeing how other people went about making their seats and riggers.

cheers
Arron

by the way, if you have any more photos I'll be pathetically grateful.

The suggestion about raising seating height worries me a LOT.

Nothing is ever as simple as that - when it comes too boats.

That seating height needs to be calculated very carefully and as a generalisation, the vessel will always be more stable if the seating height is lower in the vessel not higher.

To seafarers its called the meta centric height and is derived from the point of balance between center of gravity and center of buoyancy,

This distance or the GZ (righting lever) is what dictates how stable the craft will be when loaded (when someones sitting in it).

It sounds like a complex subject but is really very simple.

Metacentric height | Ask.com Encyclopedia

The link above explains it, with a simple diagram.

Its possible to calculate this meta center height even for your rowing canoe - give the software that naval architects use to design boats and knowing the body mass of the person who will be rowing it.

Generally speaking raising the seating height within the vessel will make it more tender - or if you will, more likely to capsize.

You could consider adding a self flooding bilge to counteract the increased instability of raising the seat position for example - there are ways around it!.

Everything in a boat is a compromise of sorts.

Cheers