turps

A teammate who owns her own boats asked yesterday if anyone would be interested in a Wednesday morning row (our coached programs don't have practice on Wednesdays). I said yes! We were joined by a third teammate on a beautiful but humid morning where we made it up just past the Menands Bridge.





After practice and coffee, I went back over to the boathouse to try and wrap up a couple projects. The first was installation of a sculling grip that had been vexing Coach M. He just couldn't get it on (har har). I first tried a bike pump trick, to no avail.



Then I tried a different trick, which involved applying hairspray. That actually worked! I got the grip moving, but then ran into a different problem, one that might explain why the bike pump trick didn't work.

In this style of oar handle, there's a half-round plug that fits into the end of the handle, to create a thumb rest. Apparently this oar handle was missing its plug when the grip was first put on.



Whoops. My vague memory is that it's nearly impossible to get this sort of grip back off again, intact, after it has been gotten all the way on. (these grips need to grip tightly to work correctly, after all). So the grip will probably have to be sacrificed. I didn't know whether we had any more spare end caps lying around, but I DID know there was another set of oars in the repair pile with the exact same handle and grip type on it. So I swapped on a new handle unit and at least got this set of oars back in service for now.

We have like 8 or so sets of oars that I want to have serviced by the manufacturer later this year*, so it's better to just set the rest of that project aside for right now.

And so, back to the sweep oar rack.

I am fairly certain there are calculations one can/should do, to determine what sort of bracing to add to a structure like the massive sweep oar rack. I did not do any of those calculations. Instead, I used the chopped-off ends of the 2x4's I cut up to make the oar slots, and just made some nice angled cuts on the ends to turn the pieces into braces. So they are probably too small.

If/when these fail, we can rebuild better.


But at least for right now, I feel better knowing there's at least some bracing on this thing. I would really hate for it to come crashing down on anybody.

I think we'll wind up storing oars in every-other slot.


I still need to pick up some more 3.5" screws to install one last storage slot in the center. Mercifully, one of my teammates is going to spearhead the project of painting/sealing the wood, since this thing is living outdoors (albeit under a freeway, so it won't be getting all that wet or UV-exposed).

It will be really great to have this project checked off the list. It was not one I really wanted to work on, but it did need to get done.





*These oars all have an older type of white plastic "sleeve." I'd like to have the older white plastic sleeves replaced with newer, long-wear green sleeves, but the sleeves need to be put on at precisely the right angle (pitch) to ensure the oar blade can enter and exit the water at precisely the right angle. I did one set at home earlier this year, but I don't have a great setup for ensuring the correct pitch, and I really don't feel like fussing with 8 sets of oars if I can help it. The club can pay for that.