Byron Drachman wrote:
One thing I've never seen before: He describes how to move the boat sideways, something that would be handy in my single at a crowded dock. So far I haven't been able to do that. I churn up the water trying to follow his instructions, but so far no luck in getting the boat to move sideways. Does anybody do this?
I used to do it a lot. When there was no wind and the kicker on my tri conked out, I had no choice but to do a little one oar sculling. It was particularly embarrassing one day when it looked like I was going to be in the way of the USC crews that practiced in that area (the channel between San Pedro and Wilmington in L.A. harbor). The boat weighed about 4500 pounds and, as I remember, I could move it at only about 1.5 knots.
The blade motion is similar to what is called finning for a swimmer. Actually, I worked out two possible modes — one in which the blade passes through vertical as it goes back and forth (or better, rotates clockwise and counterclockwise) and in the other it passes through horizontal. Empirically, I found the horizontal to be more effective.
As far as using it in a shell is concerned, I doubt that it would work well with unsymmetrical blades, like the hatchet blades. I had no problem moving sideways using a Macon blade, since they are symmetrical.
Classical one-oar sculling was done in estuarial waters that were too narrow to have the oars sticking out the side. The oar often went through a hole in the transom and the sculler would work it standing up. In a light boat it can be surprisingly fast. The boats themselves were long and narrow so that they would track well without wiggling back and forth with the motion of the oar.
Churning? Shouldn't be necessary. Keep the blade submerged and just move it a little bit back and forth, rotating the handle at the end of each lateral movement. The horizontal works best, since the leading edge of the blade is down and the blade tends to stay in the water. On doing it the other way, the blade tends to lift out and you have to fight to keep it submerged.
If you find that the blade is digging in to far, take it a little slower. There is no need to hurry here. You do have to exert some downward pressure on the handle to keep the blade from going too deep and you don't want to have the blade at a steep angle. I'm just guessing, but I probably rotate it about 15 degrees each way from the horizontal.
Another factor just occurred to me. Usually an oar used for this kind of sculling is symmetrical in two dimensions, whereas Macon oars are not. To use this technique with a Macon oar, the concave side should be up. That is another reason why the vertical mode is impractical for this procedure.
Bob S.
rough and tumble world of '60's rowing.
fairly often. We had to race 2 cars around the parking lot - with the engines off 
