Sculling with only on oar
Charles Carroll
It was years ago, but if memory serves me, I think it was Mike Sullivan, and
I think he had just gotten a copy of Steve Fairbairn's autobiography,
"Fairbairn of Jesus." Mike had come across the passage where Fairbairn
writes:
"Hanlan, the world's champion sculler, used to scull across the Thames with
only one scull. Jimmy Hastie, use to say:
"'If you row perfectly true you do little or nothing to turn a boat.'"
I recall that we had a rather lengthy discussion about whether this was
possible.
So here is a link where someone sculls with a single oar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQqcwCrotN0&feature=related
And another link where another guy about one minute into the video sculls
with a single oar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5nHQDFL-s&feature=player_embedded
I am having a difficult time telling whether these guys can actually scull
in a straight line. If they can, then it would seem that this might be a
serviceable skill to have, particularly in the event that a sculler finds
himself with only one oar.
Cordially,
Charles
Sarah A Harbour
wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> It was years ago, but if memory serves me, I think it was Mike Sullivan, and
> I think he had just gotten a copy of Steve Fairbairn's autobiography,
> "Fairbairn of Jesus." Mike had come across the passage where Fairbairn
> writes:
>
> "Hanlan, the world's champion sculler, used to scull across the Thames with
> only one scull. Jimmy Hastie, use to say:
>
> "'If you row perfectly true you do little or nothing to turn a boat.'"
>
> I recall that we had a rather lengthy discussion about whether this was
> possible.
>
> So here is a link where someone sculls with a single oar:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQqcwCrotN0&feature=related
>
I've seen that video before - the racing start with just one blade is
amazing!
Sarah
Mike Sullivan
"Charles Carroll" <charles...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:7nrq7vF...@mid.individual.net...
looks to me like the scullers are turning when they row, which I would
expect.
What's the current flow on the Thames where Fairbairn crosses it? I could
well imagine that if current was flowing left to right at a fair clip (from
the shoreline
POV), then sculling w/ the starboard scull might get you across in what
might
look like a straight line. Make sense?
The reversed blades is no big deal, btw, I've seen novices scull whole
workouts
with them!
I'm too much of a klutz anymore, but maybe one of these days I'll try it in
one of my wherries and see what might work, could be fun, but I think
I've tried it, tried to pull lightly then "crab" a bit at the release
imitating a
canoe stroke.
I think one of my clear lake kids from a few years ago is still the best
trickster:
here's casey rowing standing up:
http://www.clearlakescullers.org/sctrials03/standuprow.jpg
here he is out for a stroll on the stern of his single:
http://www.clearlakescullers.org/sctrials03/casey1.jpg
Charles Carroll
The kid in the stern of his single is very impressive.
I was showing the two videos of sculling with one oar at the Club this
morning, and Dana asked if any of us had seen the �slip and slide Germany�
video on YouTube. Here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQcVgFmIBdE
Amazing! Standing next to me was an ER Physician who had just come in off
the water. He got the biggest smile on his face.
�Well, it doesn�t look like I am going out of business anytime soon,� was
his only comment.
Cordially,
Charles
Ps Do you suppose that having a good grasp of the physics involved
significantly reduces the risk? I mean to a point where it could make sense?
Mike Sullivan
> Mike,
>
> The kid in the stern of his single is very impressive.
>
> I was showing the two videos of sculling with one oar at the Club this
These are hilarious but part of the Microsoft viral marketing campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xcAVhwPJ0E&NR=1
Charles Carroll
Should anyone ask you how to spell my name, tell him it�s spelt gullible, as
in na�ve, credulous, easy to fool.
Charles
zeke_hoskin
wrote:
This comes perilously close to a grammar flame, but:
"Sculling" is a word with multiple meanings, and one of the meanings
is to propel a boat with a single oar at the
stern using a kind of fish-tail wiggle.
Also, consider the Venetian gondola. Asymmetric boat, single sweep.
Granted, neither item covers what Mr Hanlan used to do. The contention
that a properly rowed oar has no turning moment
is bad physics, but is certainly true that turning moment and forward
thrust are not identical and you can use a single
oar alternately as a thruster and a rudder and thereby achieve net
progress. Single sweep is likely to become an Olympic
event in the same olympiad as pumpkin paddling.//Zeke Hoskin
Charles Carroll
>is to propel a boat with a single oar at the stern using a kind of
>fish-tail wiggle.
>Also, consider the Venetian gondola. Asymmetric boat, single sweep.
>Granted, neither item covers what Mr Hanlan used to do.
Zeke,
Do you know for a fact that Mr. Hanlan never propelled a boat with a single
oar sternwards using a kind of fish-tail wiggle?
The possibility that Hanlan might have used such a method "to scull" across
the Thames never occurred to me until I read your email.
The only reason that it occurred to me this morning is that last August I
came alongside the dock in front of a number of people, and to my chagrin
found myself too far away to reach over and pull myself in. I sighed and
started to back up and try again.
Gordon Hamilton was one of those on the dock watching.
"Charles, don't back up," said Gordon, "I'll show you how to get in. I want
you to lift the oar handle in your left hand really high. Come on, get it
up. Higher! Now I want you to work your oar as if you were sculling a
gondola. Just work it back and forth and it will push you right up against
the dock."
This is probably a fundamental way to work an oar, something that everyone
but me learned in their first time out on the water. Oh well, better late
than never, I guess.
I also take your point that "a properly rowed oar has no turning moment is
bad physics." I suspect that physics was not Steve Fairbairn's strong suit.
(And Carl, stop laughing. Even the greatest of us may have a bit of clay in
their feet.)
When I look at the video of this oarsman's sculling with a single oar, I
think of him using the oar shaft to lever back against the pin. Isn't
pressure against the pin what moves the boat - that is, to paraphrase
Newton, the force impressed against the pin that compels the boat to change
its state?
Now, given the way he has rigged his boat, to make it go in a straight line,
doesn't he need a compensating force on the other side?
Am I wrong to think that this compensating force comes from his hand, which
he places on his rigger and which he uses to pull the rigger in the
direction he wants to go?
Cordially,
Charles
zeke_hoskin
wrote:
Sorry, no. Pulling on the pin to move the boat is a case of trying to
lift yourself
by pulling on your bootstraps. When the oar pushes the pin, some of
the equal and
opposite reaction force is supplied by the water on the oar blade.
(The rest is supplied
by the hand/s on the oar, which is balanced by the feet against the
footplates and
hence provides no net force on the boat.) When his hand pulls the pin,
all of the equal
and opposite reaction force is supplied by body parts against boat
parts.
About fishtail sculling sideways: I've only met two kinds of rowers so
far. Some have never
heard of it, the rest know all about it but can't do it. Gotta try to
get it working for me next summer,
or else get really good at arriving at slow speed and square
orientation exactly at the corner of
the dock in a diagonal wind.//Zeke
Carl Douglas
I'd never laugh at you, Charles, only with you :) Please let me
simplify it for you, although what i am offering is slightly
over-simplified.
On a point of physics, what matters is the events "outside the box",
i.e. the force between the blade & the water on the one hand, & the
countervailing forces acting between the water & the hull on the other.
Who holds onto what & how they do it while rowing in any particular
way is all going on inside the box & it is irrelevant. The hand on the
rigger is thus irrelevant
You may, of course, generate inertial effects within the box which alter
transiently how the boat interacts with the water, & this might have a
rather secondary effect, but the overall picture is determined as I have
just described.
Yes, you can scull a boat sideways with a single blade, as Gordon
Hamilton told you. See how well a whitewater kayaker moves their boat
around with an array of special strokes. And, yes, you can scull a
single approximately straight with a single oar - but you'll have to
vary your arc, the boat may be being pushed a bit sideways (i.e. making
a bit of leeway) & you should be prepared to backwater a bit for part of
the stroke. Less extremely single-blade asymmetry works pretty well in
canoes.
It is, of course, better to have a symmetrical set-up for single-blade
sculling - as when sculling over a dinghy stern - timber dinghies often
had a notch in the middle of the transom, for you to drop an oar into
for just that purpose. The length & inertia of the dinghy keeps it
running pretty straight while you alternate the direction of load during
the sculling operation.
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
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Edgar
"Carl Douglas" <ca...@carldouglas.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7o05uvF...@mid.individual.net...
> It is, of course, better to have a symmetrical set-up for single-blade
> sculling - as when sculling over a dinghy stern - timber dinghies often
> had a notch in the middle of the transom, for you to drop an oar into for
> just that purpose. The length & inertia of the dinghy keeps it running
> pretty straight while you alternate the direction of load during the
> sculling operation.
Wooden dinghies _always_had a sculling notch in the transom.
I have three such dinghies varying from 30/50+ years old which I have
carefully restored and they are all so equipped.
It is a pity that modern grp boats do not have these. A dinghy with a pair
of paddles in it might get nicked, but if there is only one paddle they will
leave it alone because few people nowadays learn the simple skill required
to scull over the stern.
Single blade sculling over the stern is the most efficient way for one
person to move a big heavy boat. The old wooden Admiralty 32' cutters were
equipped with a notch and I have been able to get up quite a decent speed in
one of those in that way, yet I could not have rowed it at all with two oars
because of its large beam and high freeboard.
David Jillings
When I moved up to London as a youth from Suffolk I was surprised that
"sculling" referred to rowing with an oar in each hand. All my
childhood on the Orwell "rowing" involved an oar in each hand, and
"sculling" involved one oar over the back of the boat, in a notch or
these days on my Drascombe in a rowlock. If you just had one oar you
were "pulling", which really only the navy did. These days I scull both
ways depending on which river I happen to be on.
David.