best possible boat for learning is a flat bottomed skiff because it’s stable and responsive to your oar. However, not all of us have skiffs, but many of us do have small sailboats or dinghies stable enough to learn in. And starting with a common oar in your chosen boat is a good way to begin. However, there are special requirements for sculling oars.
Tey’re made of ash or oak. Tese denser woods settle deeper in the water and make sculling easier. Avoid using buoyant soſt woods. Te length of a sculling oar is oſten restricted by the space you have to stow it. Ideally, a sculling oar for a Potter 15 should be about nine feet long, but if you want to stow it in the cabin it can’t be much longer than seven feet. Sculling oars have different shaped blades than standard
oars. Here you see that the bottom side of the sculling oar’s blade is flat, but the upper side of the blade is pitched down from its centerline about 165 degrees to the blade’s leading edges. This helps the blade feather, making sculling easier. When you think about it, a sculling oar doesn’t cost much to make. Get a closet pole from the local lumber yard. Find a scrap of ash or oak and shape the blade which is about 30 inches long and 4-1/2 inches wide before fastening it to the pole. Trim the pole, keeping it as long as possible to best suit your boat’s needs. Your boat will need a scull-
ing notch on its transom. If you’re right handed, locate the notch on the right side of the transom, or on the leſt side if you’re leſt handed. Tose loca- tions are the most practical. A centered notch is considered traditional in North America. However, it is quite awkward to use. It leaves the boat out of trim when you’re sitting or standing off center needing the room to swing the oar and position yourself to see ahead. In the Bahamas the sculling notch is traditionally located on the leſt side of the transom freeing up your right hand for fishing. Using either the right or left sides for the location of the notch is your choice. Choose what works best for you. Tere are several ways to attach a sculling notch to a fiber-
be removed, if necessary, to avoid a fouled mainsheet during a jibe. Avoid using a circular oarlock which will restrict the oar’s movement when you attempt to angle the oar deeper in the water for more power. As we begin the process of learning, it’s easier to practice
sculling if the boat isn’t moving. Put down a couple of fenders to protect your boat and tie it against the float so it won’t move. Place your blade in the water and practice feathering it into the notch. To guide the blade, twist your wrist while holding the oar by its grip. Tis skill is important because as you’re learning the oar will come out of the notch. Feathering the blade back in with one hand on the grip is the fastest and easiest way to return it. When you’ve accomplished that skill you’re ready to begin sculling. Te picture on the opposite page shows the correct way to hold the oar. Grip the oar so your fingers are over the top of the grip and your thumb is extended horizontally. Orient the blade of the oar so it’s also horizontal and aligned with your thumb. To start, feather the blade below the surface of the water until the shaſt of the oar is about a forty-five degree angle from the sculling notch to the surface of the water. We’ll start with the push
An ideal sculling oar is flat on one side and shaped on the other, as seen in photos.
stroke first. As you push the grip of the oar away from your body, rotate your wrist to move your thumb up, this will an- gle the blade down and guide it closer to the hull. The pull stroke is just the opposite of the push stroke. As you pull the grip back toward you, quickly rotate your thumb down. Tis will angle the blade down and guide it closer to the opposite side of the hull. Remember, thumb up for the push stroke, and thumb down for the pull stroke. Memorize that! Start out slowly and as it
becomes more familiar increase your speed. Rotate the blade quickly from one stroke to the next. Continue practicing the push and pull strokes until you’re sculling faster and build- ing a froth in the water at the boat’s stern. Remember, if the oar jumps out of the notch, it’s
glass boat. One way is to bolt a piece of wood to the outside of the transom. A notch can be cut in the wood using a hole cut- ter. You may also need to use an inspection plate for the bolts if there’s a liner on the inside the hull. Another way to install a wooden notch is to use your boarding ladder. In this picture the caps have been removed from the vertical tubes on the ladder. Wooden dowels epoxied in the sculling piece slide into the exposed tubes for a solid attachment. You can also use an open oarlock rather than a notch if you wish. Te oarlock can
SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR
because you haven’t continuously pulled down on the grip of the oar as you scull. If you’re feeling confident about your sculling, then it’s time
to cast off and take the boat out onto the open water. Wind can make sculling difficult for beginners, so a calm day is rec- ommended. If there’s a little wind, scull directly into it or away from it for the time being. Sculling in wind will be mentioned later. Now that the boat is moving through the water you’ll find
sculling more difficult because the water passing under the boat will want to liſt the oar up out of the notch. And the faster the
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