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Permalink Reply by Ants Uiga on February 7, 2015 at 6:14pm

I used 40feet of three strand nylon and a 20 pound anchor for a 12 foot boat. Since I have been screwing around with sailboats for decades, it was easy to use an eye splice and nylon thimble for the connection. With the splice, the anchor pulls tight into the anchor roller.

Ray Heater figured out the locations for the anchor rollers, but the roller at the pointy end (the stern) is just a few inches above the flat water surface.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Rose on February 9, 2015 at 12:56am

You folks realize this thread is three years old, right?  However, I still appreciate your replies.

But I'm still having problems with yaw.  I know I could keep my oars in the water.  I've done that, and it's great when you're just hanging out or having lunch, but it's not so great if you get a fish on.

So your other advice is to lower the anchor pulley.  I'd guess that my anchor line goes through the transom about an inch below the top, then through the pulley (mine is a Tatman kit boat, circa 1995), so lowering the anchor pulley sounds reasonable.

However, that does seem a bit counter-intuitive, since the transom is on the upstream end and the anchor line would tend to pull it down, but then, maybe not so far down that water would come through the hole, not unless some overweight fella like myself is sitting in the stern seat.

So I'll check out that possibility.  Thanks.

Jack

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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on February 9, 2015 at 8:01am

I think you just solved your problem. ..."an overweight fellow in the stern seat".

The '95 Tatman was built as a "west coast" style drift boat. It is asymmetrical and designed to carry its load in front of the rower. That's why it is wider at this point. The oar locks are mounted upstream of center and the rower sits in the narrower portion of the hull. As soon as you put more than a cooler full of beer behind the rower you begin to have problems. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to experience this problem.
Distribute the weight of passengers and gear properly and you will fall back in love with that sweet little hull.



As west coast drift boat began their migration east into the Firestone trout streams of the Intermountain west this problem became very obvious. We liked to fish our clients for and aft so both could fish at the same time. I moved the oar locks and rowers seat a full frame forward on my old 16' Ostrem boat and mounted a rear seat a full frame forward of the transome. Because this hull was fairly flat,ie. little rocker, it worked reasonably well but not great. I tried this same trick in a Keithe Steele hull with a bit more rocker to it and found it unacceptable. I saw many poorly trimmed boats in the 80's as more guides went to drift boats and stuck an angler on the back end of the boat. After a while the wooden boat builders like Ray Heater began to make a bigger, and more symmetrical boat that was designed to have weight fore and aft. The plastic boat guys and the stitch and glue guys actually lead the charge in these types of hulls because they were not restricted to reworking frame patterns to achieve this new hull.


All of the above suggestions are right about what to do to stabilized an anchored dory but none will work on a poorly(dangerously) trimmed hull.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Rose on February 9, 2015 at 8:20am

AJ, thanks.  That all finally makes so much sense.

And I do love that boat, I just don't love fishing out of the back seat, which is where the rower inevitably ends up if he's got a friend along.

I guess I either need to build a new boat, or get rid of my old friends, or give up carbs.

So it comes down to either friends or beer. 

Hmmm...

Jack

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Permalink Reply by Jack Rose on February 9, 2015 at 8:43am

AJ, one more question.  You mentioned that the oar locks should be placed "upstream of center." 

I placed mine where Greg Tatman told me to, which is upstream of center, but I've never been convinced that their placement couldn't be further fine-tuned.

So, any tips on that?  Can it be better quantified, like center-load, or stem-to-stern center, or center along the gunnels?

Or is is jut a 'feel' thing?

Almost 20 years later, I should probably finally get around to installing new oar blocks with at least couple of holes for oar lock placement.

Jack

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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on February 9, 2015 at 1:05pm

Jack,

Greg Tatman told you where they should be and he is right. This is where all traditional west coast built boats put their oar locks. This give the biggest area in front of the rower where all passengers ride. A boat built specifically, ie.more symmetrical, to carry a passenger behind the rower would have a wider transom area and the oar locks and rowers seat would then need to move downstream to help trim the weight in back.

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