My first experience with a steering oar
was not auspicious. In Coast Guard boot camp I managed to talk my
way into steering one of the big whaleboats used for training and racing.
We must have had all the strong guys on one side as my best effort was
not enough to prevent ramming one of the other boats; causing an automatic
disqualification and my demotion to rowing guy. It took quite a few
years before I realized that a steering oar is much more than a rudder.
If I had used the oar function I could have avoided the collision.
Based on my experience with my 16' and
31' proas I've used the steering oar in at least four different modes.
1. The oar can function as a rudder
by simply immersing the blade and angling it to turn the canoe. This
mode is most commonly used for course correction on broad reaches and for
rounding up into the wind to drop the sail.
2. Going aback is the biggest no-no
with shunting proas and can necessitate dropping the sail or can cause
a capsize. If you sail long enough it will happen. Sailing
up under headlands or getting a sudden windshift can put you into an embarrassing
situation. This is where the steering oar has saved my bacon on several
occasions. Using it as an oar with a powerful sweeping motion will
kick the stern of the canoe around right now. This is something you
can't do with a rudder.
3. I also use the oar as a movable
source of lateral resistance by simply trailing it with no angle of incidence,
but varying the amount of immersion. If I'm beam reaching and want
to bear off, I'll angle the oar deeper into the water and the canoe will
turn down wind. This produces less drag than using the oar as a rudder
and is readily apparent by the lack of turbulence.
4. Lately I've been practising a
sculling stroke to propel the canoe in calms. This works amazingly
well and I'm sure I'll get better with practice. A fully rigged sailing
canoe is rarely well set up for paddling and the seamless transition from
control to propulsion is a real delight. There's an article in Woodenboat
magazine number 100, May/June 1991 with all of the techniques illustrated.
The pine oar on board the 31' Te Wa is
11 ft (3.35 m) long and weighs 9.5 lbs (4.5 kg). The shaft is 2 1/4"
(55mm) in diameter; the blade is 4' (1.2 m) long and 5 1/2" (140
mm) wide. It is pivoted in a "U" shaped yoke on either end of the
leeward side of the canoe. During the shunt, the oar is simply dropped
into the water and allowed to float with its tether to the new stern where
it is picked up by the crew. This length is adequate but when I build
another it will be longer. This would enable one to steer standing
up, which is useful when maneuvering in close quarters.
The 16' Tarawa uses two 7' 6" standard
rowing oars mounted in rowlocks about 8" (200 mm) to windward of the side
of the hull. Having two oars saves some time in the shunt which is
more important on the smaller canoe. Mounting them on the windward
side means that everything can be controlled without moving from your position
on the windward seat. As the oar is mostly unnecessary on windward
courses, there is no problem with the blade running in the vortex turbulence
of the hull.
As a rule of thumb I would recommend that
steering oars be approximately one half the length of the canoe.
So after all the good stuff, what's the
down side?
Scaling the steering oar up to larger
canoes can turn into real oceanic he-man stuff. Pacific museums contain
huge steering oars that take two men just to lift. This is all very
well on an afternoon sail but not what you want on an ocean passage with
your girlfriend.
I see steering to be the biggest challenge
in making the shunting proa acceptable to a wider range of sailors.
Plenty of proa sailors are using some form of dagger/rudders installed
in the main hull. The results have been widely variable with some
claiming great success and others recommending that I have nothing to do
with it. It's a deceptively complex issue depending on hull shape,
daggerboards and type of sailing rig employed.
So there is still much work to be done
before we go on prime time with a 60' proa. In the mean time I'm
greatly enjoying the secure feeling I have sailing at speed through thin
and obstructed water and not worrying about what could happen below.