shipping oars/carrying on planes

[Eric M. Whipkey]

Has anyone had experience shipping or flying with oars to regattas. I am
planning on rowing in a double with a friend in the Marathon Rowing
Championships in Louisiana. We have arranged to rent a boat for the race and
will be flying out, but it looks like we will need to provide our own oars. I
have been told that we can carry the oars on the plane with us (well not as
carry on 8>D), but that if we pack them carefully, we can avoid damage. So, my
question is..What is the best way to "pack them" or would we be better off
shipping them UPS to the regatta or something?

Any advice on this would be appreciated, or if anyone is coming to this race and
has a couple of pairs of ultra light hatchets that we could rent that would be
even better. Thank you,

eric

[James Worrell]

> Has anyone had experience shipping or flying with oars to regattas. I am
> planning on rowing in a double with a friend in the Marathon Rowing

Usually ... just wrap them pretty well, mark with Fragile tape
etc .. and drop them off at the oversize baggage area .. no questions
asked ...

Have had the odd set broken when travelling as a large team tho ...

Usually sculling blades too .. .can't think of a time when moving
sweep blades ...

Best bet would be to ship the sweeps ...

With packing the sculls, usually we just wrap the blades
in bubble wrap - the whole thing, or just the
blades and buttons etc ... and leave the shafts ...

James

[Mrjkowal]

I met a guy at Masters this summer who had a pair broken by an airline. Of
course, it wasn't their fault. John

[mar...@martinholden.freeserve.co.uk]

Eric M. Whipkey wrote in message <37D59F87...@bah.com>...

>Has anyone had experience shipping or flying with oars to regattas. I am
>planning on rowing in a double with a friend in the Marathon Rowing

>Championships in Louisiana. We have arranged to rent a boat for the race
and
>will be flying out, but it looks like we will need to provide our own oars.
I
>have been told that we can carry the oars on the plane with us (well not as
>carry on 8>D), but that if we pack them carefully, we can avoid damage.
So, my
>question is..What is the best way to "pack them" or would we be better off
>shipping them UPS to the regatta or something?
>
>Any advice on this would be appreciated, or if anyone is coming to this
race and
>has a couple of pairs of ultra light hatchets that we could rent that would
be
>even better. Thank you,
>
>eric

We took some oars on a train once - problem was when we arrived at the other
end the train had pulled in the opposite side and we couldn't get the oars
out again. It meant we had a comical 10 minutes moving the oars in and out
of windows while the guards were blowing whistles telling us the train was
about ot leave the station. Obviously it wasn't going anywhere with oars
sticking out of both sides of the train at right angles - luckily nothing
came in the opposite direction!

No idea about planes though.