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Permalink Reply by justin nicola on January 10, 2011 at 8:41pm

general rule of thumb (or so ive been told) is 16" from the back of the seat.  this from a very knowledgable gentleman at adirondack guide boats who answered a bunch of my questions via email knowing i had no intention of buying one of his gorgeous boats.

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Permalink Reply by Don Wakefield on January 11, 2011 at 9:50am

Thanks Justin - kind of hard to find where the exact back of the seat is, but when I tried to measure it ended up well behind my knees and would be difficult to have much of a back stroke.  Wished I still had my aluminum driftboat and I could measure.  Maybe I'll crack Roger's great book and glean an idea from his many drawings. Thanks!  Don

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Permalink Reply by justin nicola on January 11, 2011 at 11:21am

it sounds silly but you could always build some sort of framing system out of 2x4, sit on the ground in between them, and drill holes at intervals on the top of the 2x (which is built to match your gunnel height) to try the oarlocks in different locations.  i have a lot of experience working w/ finish carpentry, its always a good idea to take your time making decisions before you go cutting and drilling holes.  this way will cost $15 in materials and take a few hours to do, BUT it will ensure a truly custom fit. 

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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on January 12, 2011 at 5:51am

Don:  Justin might have the best solution- make up a "mock" seat and fiddle with it.   The  17' DB I built  has the seat about 6-8" below the gunwale andf the locks are about 10" from the front of the seat.   The skiff we use has a seat(thwart)  9 1/2" wide (1x10)  and the locks are about 10" in front of the aft end of the seat.  I can" hook"  the fat end of my butt over the edge of the forward end of the seat and row  very well.  So it appears that 16-18" from the back of the seat might not be too far off.  With your style of seat with the full back(very good looking job)  you might want to allow a little more room from the seat to the locks so that you can lean back somewhat when you want to really "put the ash"  to the oars.  Let us know how it finally works out and how it rows.  With the added weight  it probably won't handle like  a standard DB.

Good Luck 

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Permalink Reply by Don Wakefield on January 12, 2011 at 10:41am

Yes - still scratching my head but the jury is still out and I haven't drilled any holes.  Using the mock up idea sorta - I sat on the existing seat and tried to simulate a rowing action with my hands, then, using the middle of my stroke for the oarlock position it worked out that it was about 2-3" ahead of my kneecaps and between 10 and 11" in front of the seat.  I noticed on one or more of Roger's drawings that the oarlock was placed about half a frame ahead of the seat, which would be a rough agreement to the 10" position.   I want to mount the locks on the inside of my unorthodox 6" wide level rails so I can swing the blades into the tackle tray on the inside, so in order to clear the oar from rubbing the outside edge I have elevated the socket with a chunk of oak.

While all this head scratching and brainstorming is going on I noticed these sorta handles sticking out from the side of my tool box -- wow wouldn't take much just to mount these handles and then use them for a sliding socket apparatus that could be moved to accomodate various sizes of rowers - as many conventional sockets are drilled in several locations between the gunnel battens.  Similar to the slider that I fashioned for the throttle to accomodate the seat facing forward  and using the right-hand,  or the seat facing the bow and using my left hand for throttle.

Now this is really tempting!

It works out too that I can swing my feet up against that motor box to give me some gription with heavy rowing as the seat is pretty high.

 

Thanks much Lawrence for your input, appreciate the help from both you guys......  Don in Paradise, CA

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Permalink Reply by justin nicola on January 12, 2011 at 10:54am

another thought is to clamp some 1x or 2x material to the top of the gunnels, sit in the boat, and drill your tester holes in that. 

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