"I swapped in 750lb springs and have been very happy with them. Steel trailer, 17x54 boat, loaded cooler. It rides like a dream"

"Hmmm, now you got me thinking I should just offset it when I first mount it....will have to verify the transom is wide enough.  I don't plan to run a motor initially, maybe in a couple years.  It'll be easy to remove if I need…"

"Just a heads up make sure you’re not ever going to run a motor before you mount your anchor bracket. I regret not offsetting mine for motor clearance"

"I haven't been able to work much on the boat, but I was able to complete the anchor arm and apply 3 coats of varnish...."

"Thanks.  Keep in mind I have zero rowing experience...I just hope they perform well.  Reading up on oars made me realize oar design is a science all its own!"

"Those oars look great! "

"And after a few coats of varnish, the oars are done...."

"Walnut was laminated to the square tops to add a little more counter-balance... And routed in a couple of inlays to help position the blades vertical when you first grab them, i.e., as long as the inlays are on top the blades are vertical."

"Added 6 oz cloth to the blade sections..."

"The blades are from some tight grained red wood I found in my lumber stash.  The pro of redwood is that it's fairly light weight, the con is that it's not very durable and dents easily.  To help protect the edges I steam bent…"

"1708 with graphite on top has held up to a lot of boat dragging for me"

"The 2-1/4 diameter shaft is tapered down to 1-5/8 at the neck.  I didn't have a spokeshave so jerry-rigged a section of pipe with a cutting edge.  It worked, sorta.  I'll be going to an old tool swapmeet held this weekend…"

"So I'm kinda dragging my feet on fully assembling the hull since I'll need to do this where I currently park my truck in the garage (my workshop isn't big enough for a 17' boat). In the meantime, I'm making a set of oars.…"

"pretty looking parts!"

"Your plan of 1/2" ply with a layer of 1708 is a very standard treatment. It should hold up well. "

"These machined pulleys and small bracket will be used as part of the anchor system. I plan to purchase a Dierks foot release from driftboatplans.com, unless someone has a better recommendation?"