"Shawn, to get bulk I tied one turks head with light cord, then a larger one over the top using parachute cord. How many leads and bights? I have no idea. I painted the final product with epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol. So far those knots are…"

"My oars are 2 inches under the wraps tapering down to 1 3/4 at the transition to the blades. I will take them down a good deal and probably not wrap so far down the shaft the second time. Will hurt to cut through my turks head oar stops."

"Thanks Shawn. They are tapered. The whole oar project was easier than I thought it would be. A home made spar gauge was key to that. This winter I will take the wraps and oar stops off, take 1/16 inch in radius off the shafts and taper the…"

"I used yellow popular aka tulip popular. Available in the east and midwest. Commonly used to make moulding, window casing etc. Engineering properties as I recall are similar to aitka. Straight grain, no knots easy to work. Got the idea from a friend…"

"Thanks Dave, they will be easy to visit when I am out that way next month."

"JC The cool thing about the Montana Canvas cover referenced in Bennett's link is that it's made from long haul truck cover material - designed to spend a lifetime at freeway speeds. Whatever you choose, be sure it's a full coverage…"

"Thanks!"

"http://woodenboatpeople.org/forum/topics/wood-boat-covers"

"Isnt that a woven type rope you can eye splice? There are quite a few diy tutorials for splicing woven rope on you tube, marine supply websites and the like."