Installing Oars on a Compac 16

[Jason]

Hi Everybody,

Had some questions on oar installation, so I started a new post here to illustrate how I installed mine.

I use the oars very frequently, they are useful:
-around the launch
-for pushing/fending off of obstructions or the bottom
-quiet or emergency propulsion if there is no wind or if the motor dies
-auxiliary power if you don't want to take a motor
-you can legitimately issue the order to "run out the swabs"

1.  Having tried 7foot and 8 foot oars, I recommend 8 foot oars for a Compac 16, I went with wooden ones.


2. The position of the oarlock on the oar is shown below, 29 inches from the end of the oar handle to the center of the oarlock pin.


3. The tricky part is installing the oarlock onto the gunwale.  There are many ways to do this, and I will share what I wound up with.  

Simple oarlocks can typically be found in 2 configurations for attachment to the boat.  One type mounts horizontally on top of the boat with fasteners going vertical through

a horizontal mounting surface, the socket for the oarlock pin goes vertically down into the boat.  The second type mounts to the side of the boat, they of course also have a vertical socket to accept the pin from the oar, but the mounting surface is also vertical with the attachment fasteners going horizontally through a vertical mounting surface.  To mount the oarlock horizontally, which has some benefits, one would need to mount the oarlock on top of the gunwale.  I like the idea of the fasteners being in mostly shear and the oarlock socket also being in shear-load capacity installed tight into the top of the gunwale.  The downsides of this approach to me were 1. how to handle water leakage into the boat through the socket  2. The interior cabin space , in the gunwale, is full of material.  Insulation or something, and the quarters to dig it out and reach the hardware are very very tight.  Having done lots of other work attaching lifelines, lights, new cleats, etc.... I was about done climbing in there again......so

I opted to mount my oar locks to the side of the gunwale as shown below.  Attempt #1, this was a long shot that I thought had minimal odds of working, and indeed it failed halfway through season 1.  Attempt #1 consisted of using large coarse screws to screw the oarlock into the side of the gunwale.  Despite proper torque and bedding, the threads just plain work loose and the connection strength is lost.  I really would not recommend screwing in the oarlocks.   At this point, I had the holes in the side of the gunwale so was committed to attaching the oarlocks there.  I could have got into the cabin and dug out the insulation and tried to put big washers or a backer plate onto the other side and through bolt the oarlock.  As noted above, I was rightly or wrongly not interested in digging out the insulation, so Attempt #2:  I decided to drill all the way through the gunwale to the inside of the cockpit.  I used large washers and smooth head machine screws and through bolted the oarlock.   This was a strong attachment method, BUT I learned that these oars really exert lots of force on the oarlock, the at the washer the bolts were flexing and dimpling the fiberglass on the cockpit wall.  Which brought me to the current version, Attempt #3 shown below, which has held up well.  I built a backer plate out of hardwood (painted white in the photo), tapered it to fit the gunwale rounded all the edges, and through bolted the sucker on there.   It is a compromise as it could be argued that the backer plate could be uncomfortable to lean against, but I can say that it has not been an issue for me or the folks on the boat so far.  One could make a thinner stainless steel or aluminum backer plate as well.  I do not particularly like the bolt compressing the "airspace" inside the gunwale, but this is the solution that I have wound up with and it is working well.  The center of the oarlock is 3 feet aft of the jibsheet cleats, as shown below.






Made it out on lake michigan in and around Milwaukee tuesday evening.  The launch was not open yet, no piers, and we launched through the ice.  Squeaked through an opening between ice sheets on the way out, and when we came back in the dark the ice sheets (1ft or less thick at this point but still 100ft or so in diameter) had blown back and blocked our access to the ramp.  Raining and cold and windy and we had our rain gear on and had a blast.  Found about a 15ft wide spot in the ice that was thin ice and hacked through it with the oars (another great use for oars!!!), had to push the boat through the broken ice and may have scraped up the bootstripe, but made it back to the ramp.  Before the weather moved in it was a pretty evening.  No wind, but these are the things crazy people in the north do by the end of winter.  I think the ice will be totally gone in a couple days, the weather has been nice.


-Jason

[Cevin c Taylor]

Jason:  Thanks for the writeup!  I've been thinking of this for some time, after a couple of times when my outboard stalled out on me.  8' oars are what stopped me, as well as not having a good way to mount the oarlocks.  I was thinking of cutting the oars into halves, and then using an aluminum sheath a couple of feet long to cover the cut, and brace them.  Not sure if it's clear what I mean, but it would allow me to store them in the cabin.  My concern is compromising the strength of the oar.  I'll have to so some experimenting on that one.  Have you made any interior changes to your '16 for cruising?  Enjoyed your Lake Michigan writeup a while back.

Is that a homemade storm jib you have on it?

[mikew]

Jason, good deal on your oar project. At times I think of adding them to my cp-16 but only have a 4' paddle now to help around the ramp.
Enclosed is a link to a blog about a couple who cruised a Cp-16 in the Florida keys on a 400 mile trip.
They didn't want a motor and set the boat up with oars :
http://www.adventurevista.com/Cruising-Florida-2010.php

Mike

[Jason]

Hi,

The storm jib is from rolly tasker / National Sails in Florida. 

As far as interior modifications go, my 16 was stripped down when I got it, so a cleaned and repainted the interior, then added some shelves , little table, fire extinguisher, electrical system with interior fan, light, bilge pump, 12v charger adapter, and a couple pictures.

Most of the modifications I did prior to heading out on the great lakes related to safety on the deck and in the cockpit (life lines, multiple pad eyes for attaching lifejacket harness tethers, bow-mounted anchor, hinges and sealed lazarette, oars, reefed main, stormjib, boarding ladder, jib up/down haul run to the cockpit, spare fuel tank, new pfd s with built in safety harness , tethers, gps, depth sounder, decent first aid kit, required flares air horns etc, electrical strobe flares, bunch of spare hardware pins bulbs and lines, spare anchor, running lights, manual bilge pump, some tools, radar reflector, emergency paddle, throwable pdf, rain gear, charts, boom tent tarp, hull hole emergency bung, hoistsble mast top light, compass, navionics USA app on the iphone, handheld VHF, snorkel and flippers, a bucket, spare double block, spare batteries, ziplocks, knife, and a tin whistle.    All that said, I would not want to get caught out in a storm, and I watch the weather carefully as I can.

Jason

[Tipsea]

Hey Jason,
               Thanks for the write up on the oars. I'm of the same mind on my recently purchases CP-16. I have a electric trolling motor now and I am trying to avoid the whole outboard mess. Henry(Tipsea)