rowing scull

[trebor]

Hi,
Does anyone have a single scull ?
Cheap as possible.


[Ed]

You have just missed a rash of them on ebay.

Dragon school in Oxford shifted a few and there were some nice boats in London area.

Prices on the whole seemed quite high.

but what kind of thing are you looking for?

Wood? Plastic? Fine Scull, Restricted, Whiff? Classic? or knackrd old boat? What kind of size/weight does it need to carry? For you or someone else? for an experienced sculler or learner?

I do have a very early Whiff that I might shift on, but that is a fair sized project.

eib

[trebor]

The boat would be for myself, I weigh just over 10 stone, 5 foot 10".
This is just something for when their is no wind, I haven't rowed for years but used to be quite good.
Material wise, anything really, if wood, it would be a good opportunity to start my first wood project (if not to bad).

[Ed]

Well, I have my Bathurst Whiff, sitting there needing to be finished.

I am not sure and have no provenance, but I know that ten of these boats exactly like this were made in 1907 for the foundation of Tewkesbury Rowing Club.

It is about 24ft long, mahogany clinker on small oak shaped/cut half-ribs. The main shoulders are out of the boat at moment, but I have cut new oak ones to go in. Would most probably need new saxboards. Have a seat and slides, most probably a foot-stretcher

In Haynes talk it is most probably a 3-4 spanner job.

I am guessing it might be too much, but if you are interested, we can talk more.

It may also be that now that Michael Brigg has finished Torment, he is looking for a new project, so this is a reminder for him too.

Photos at https://goo.gl/photos/yASwLqCQCNHXB49k8

Best wishes

eib

[trebor]

Wow
I think it's a job for Michael, thanks for offer though.
I missed ebay boats, I must be putting in wrong search.

[Michael Brigg]

There is a steady flow of all kinds of scull through this site here...

http://noticeboard.rowingservice.com/

They don't always reply when you try to contact them and you have to manually convert the e-mail addresses.(Security measures.)

The Dragon School fleet was flagged up here, but advertised on ebay as " old sculls in rather an obscure section.

I find when browsing ebay it's best to search the whole site, with "Scull," Sculling boat," or "Rowing boat," and accept you may have to find your way through lots of fake rowing prints from America. Worse still is the search engine's habit of 'correcting' your spelling and spewing out lot of 'Crystal Skull' ornaments, candles and other cosplay junk

Essentially you need to set your budget and go for it.

Many 'veteran' scullers will want to buy their own boats, and this is where the main market for wooden sculls exists. For racing purposes really Carl Douglass is about the only person producing wooden sculls, and these are in fact exotic materials dressed up in a wood veneer with a price to match. (Decent condition 2nd hand is @ £3000+) They are also quite twitchy and difficult to balance, so they aren't that popular with heavyweight oarsmen and often belong to lightweights (less than 11 stone) or women.

At 10 stone (ish) you will be able to use most older wooden sculls, especially older , ex School boats. If your speed (in your prime) was less than or close to 2 minutes for a 500m sprint, then you should be able to manage any style of scull, though modern "cleaver" style oars are more difficult to balance due to lighter weight and need a different rowing style. (Front loaded power at the catch rather than a long hard finish.

A lot of clubs are getting rid of their wooden boats due to perceived maintenance problems, although this is in fact something of a mistake. Most wooden boats now for sale are 20+ years old while most plastic boats are dead after 10 with the exception perhaps of the 1980 vintage Janousek boats that are built like the proverbials.

It is also a sad fact that increasing numbers of wooden sculls are being targeted by the Theme pub and companies cutting them up to make useless furniture. This should really only be done when the boat is a write off!

Sculls are surprisingly easy to restore. Most of the stiffness is in the frame which is usually not exposed to sun and frost. The real killer is when they are moved to outdoor racks to make way for the new plastic boats.

After the £1500 + "retirement present / mid life crisis boat, ( think "MAMIL's" with carbon fibre sculls rather than bicycles) the market then falls quickly down to somewhere between "free to a good home," to £500 with everything in between. It's mostly luck, but if it needs a new canvas, or has bad varnish or no riggers or sculls I would seldom pay more than £150

Here is another thought...

[trebor]

Looks good, but for over 3 grand it ought to

I thought about something similar to this, using a dish decked minisail, but could not work out how to design a seat, getting hold of oars another problem.

[realnutter]

I've got most of the bits you need, Rob... A Minisail hull with the aft tank cut out... waiting for extended side tanks and a higher, self draining floor... A nice flat floor would be perfect for mounting your seat to.... Plus a pair of ally moth wings, which you could hang your oars off...

Come and get it!

[Michael Brigg]

I've got most of the bits you need, Rob... A Minisail hull with the aft tank cut out... waiting for extended side tanks and a higher, self draining floor... A nice flat floor would be perfect for mounting your seat to.... Plus a pair of ally moth wings, which you could hang your oars off...

Come and get it!

What you would need though is ideally a wave piercing hull. (The wide bow of a topper would have enormous drag, and so has no run between strokes.)

One of these can be entertaining if you strap it (or a similar system) to a wind surfer.



I heard of a guy who put one of these on a plastic 25 foot x 1' drainage pipe, (sealed at each end) to make a passable (and useable) scull

You could also use the board as a stand up paddle board.

[cweed]

I had an old IC hull years ago which someone took away to convert to some sort of rowing vessel.... (no, Jim, not the Pyranha!)

[poacher]

Where do you get a sliding seat assembly, like the one shown above, as I have a laser hull the has been narrowed which would make an ideal river scull.
thanks
John

[Michael Brigg]

Information... Brand new these are all quite pricey!

http://www.adirondackrowing.com/Drop%20 ... stems.html
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/b ... -unit.html

In UK or Europe I would try contacting people like "Virus Boats"

http://www.rowvirusboats.com/rowboard/index.html

THis appears to be the most easily found in UK...

http://www.fyneboatkits.co.uk/accessori ... ing-frame/


I found a ton of earnest chatter here on the wooden boat forum

http://forum.woodenboat.com/archive/ind ... 73762.html

[trebor]

Matt, Paul's got umpteen minisails to pick from, an old Laser hull sounds a better plan.

650 notes and you still need oars, another £400 plus.
"Luck" needed to get a cheapish set up.

[Michael Brigg]

Matt, Paul's got umpteen minisails to pick from, an old Laser hull sounds a better plan.

650 notes and you still need oars, another £400 plus.
"Luck" needed to get a cheapish set up.

Agreed the Drop in Seat and rigger set is costly, and they rarely come up on the 2nd hand market, but old seats, oars and riggers are another thing all together. These would need just a pair of shoulders to bolt on. and a pair of rails to which you could bolt on some 2nd had Ausie rails for the sliding seat. The engineering would not be difficult for an average metal worker/welder, and could probably be done mostly with bolts and screws for as little as £100 - 200.

An old mast or a set of Aerofoiled spreaders from an old cruiser could easily be fashioned into a "wing rigger." using nothing more than avoirdupois.

Oars, if you buy top of the range carbon will cost @ £400, but blades needing little more than a coat of paint pop up regularly for @£100.

So total aprox £300 for a home build, a bit pricier than £0, but not impossible. However, it is nice to think that a full package can often be got for less than this, and looks a good deal smarter.

[Ed]

There used to be a guy in North Devon who was making off-shore sculling boats.... and he used Nethercott IC shells to do it.

I will try and find a reference to it, ah here it is. Took me ages....gave up and stared following a link about the Truc 12, which is a pretty little boat and suddenly there it was:





Best wishes

eib