Colin gives a tour of the Angus Rowboats designed ultralight drop in rowing unit. This 14 lb sliding seat rowing system can be used in many open boats such as canoes and wherries.
Hello Colin. Great design and video presentation. looking forward to building a row sail cruiser someday soon. Meanwhile I may move forward with this device for various boats I already have. Big fan! Tim
Greetings Colin. I got into erging last year after reading the Boys in the Boat and finding a used Waterrower for $225. Stereotypical probably, but I love it. I've been a kayaker for years and I'm thinking of building a CLC Mill Creek 16.5 for single rowing and double kayaking. I will be building oars and a drop in unit and I'm looking at your drop in kit. Do you know if it's a match for the Mill Creek? And/Or does your Expedition Rowboat convert for tandom kayaking with the family? ;)
In case anyone is wondering how much stress an oar may place on that pin... The oar is a multi layer carbon fiber tube about 2.5 inches in diameter. I was on the team for Berkeley High School in California. We snapped 3 oars on the water. 5 people in my boat made it to the USA Jr Olympics team and were undefeated internationally.
Nice looking simple system there, I'm going to build a sherry tandem soon and this would look awesome and fit right in with the boats form, ps I just subbed as well :)
Colin, few things: 1. Why use epoxy when good waterproof wood glue increases the wood/joint strength 2. Instead of pine for the pat rig, why not use marine ply, stiff, great to shape, and takes paint or veneer excellently Cheers
1) Epoxy is waterproof wood glue, and the gold standard. There is no stronger glue, as glues break in the wood not the joint. But where high performance wood products are concerned, creep is a problem, and again epoxy is the champ. WEST built wooden wind turbines for GE and NASA, the structures are hugely proven, and massively stressed cantilevered structures. And then, since this is a kit, you are dealing with novice builders, and epoxy is a lot more forgiving of poor fits. You can have a gap of 1/4" in a epoxy joint, really more, that is just a number the mention, and the joint is still 100 percent. 2) If you are talking about the spar, you want a linear fiber, and that is what wood is in board form, like the pine used here. It is much stronger than ply, which is a great material for panels, like the hull of the boat shown. In large sections like the beams of a catamaran, ply can be a player, but in small section, no dice, as little as 50% of the wood is going in the direction one would want. And ply uses low structural quality veneers that are removed like the shaving from a pencil, you get lots of grain run-out. If you want to try something out, make a cane out of plywood and see how that compares to one made conventionally.
