Teaching at The Wooden Boat School: Tradional & Modern Oar Making

After work at Shaw and Tenney, I had my debut teaching job at Wooden Boat School. One of my favorite (and most labor intensive) specialties is oar making, so I was to teach the traditional way and the modern way, using composite blades. Each students chose an oar type of their choice to fit a boat they had or wanted to have. We had everything from 7' flat blade Spruce oars (for a Nutshell Pram) to laminated plywood spoon blade sculls to a Greenland style kayak paddle.

 

We were able to get out for two solid rows where CLint coached some fixed seat rowing and we all just enjoyed learning how to use oars and be comfortable in rowboats. We were able to use the school's fleet of rowboats, including this Joel White Shearwater.

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