20250716

New Oars for Hatseflats Part 3

Saturday 12 July

Punched holes at 10mm intervals along the edges of the leathers (10mm from the edge). I used an awl for punching the holes from either side. Then I attached the leather to the oar with double-sided tape and used 200cm of twine to sew each leather.

Once the leathering was complete I applied Bison-Tix (neoprene glue) to the strips for the buttons and the 'cuffs' of the sleeves and let it dry for 15 minutes. Repeated this process because the leather was absorbing the glue too well. Finally glued the strips into place to form the buttons.

Sunday 13 July

I fixed a retainer line to the oarlocks but found I could not lift the oarlocks from the sockets. By coincidence Joost called to ask how the new oars were developing. He suggested to saw notches into the pins of the new oarlocks to allow some space between the retainer line and the inside of the sockets.
I used a metalworking handsaw to reduce the tips of the pins as Joost had indicated. Next I rounded the edges with a file and rounded the edges some more with sanding paper. Finally I added the retainer lines and secured them with snap shackles and voila, now the whole thing worked as I wanted.

Wednesday 16 July

I took my new oars to the Limfjord and brought my old oars as reserve oars. After launching I took Hatseflats for a spin around the marina and found that it rowed quite well. Although the blades were just a shade bigger than the old Lahnakoski oars I found that each pull provided more power. If I had to quantify the relative performance I would say that 3 pulls with the new oars generated the same power as the old ones with 4 pulls.
Vincent persuaded me to leave the old Lahnakoski oars in the car and make the whole trip on the Limfjord with the new oars. Good decision, never looked back.