Take Apart Oars

Article By Shorty

The oars I carry


Something will go wrong some day, and I have had enough of those days that the first thing I outfit my boats with a set of oarlocks, and I carry a set of take apart oars. The black bag keeps the pieces from flopping around when stored inside the bow cavity.



Here they are put together.

TIP: if you break the pin or loose the horn part of your oarlock, you can tie a piece of line though the oarlock socket and use that to row with.



This is my one arm rowing oar. It is the biggest oar I can put in the bow cavity, and when sailing I usually keep it in the cockpit with me. I use it by rowing with just this one oar, and use the rudder to counteract the force

Great for manuvering around docks and stuff, but really comes in handy on light wind days. I can leave the sail up, and when the wind dies, I can do a little rowing to make headway, and then when the wind comes back I put the oar back in the cockpit, and sail. It is very quick to switch back and forth, and I leave the rudder down the entire time - which when using 2 oars you usually have to remove the rudder.

Even though it is so short, it still works good for what I am trying to do with it. For serious rowing, I'll pull out the take apart set and use those.