Sculling sailboats?

[klubko]

Here is a link for the Pardey discussion:
The Self-Sufficient Sailor - Google Book Search

[tdw]

Originally Posted by hphoen

When I was a teenager, our family spent summer vacations in an old farm house on Gwynn's Island, VA, on the Chesapeake Bay. We were adopted by a local waterman by the name of Fossie Smith. He taught me a lot about life on the Bay. One of the things he did was to take the time to teach me how to scull an 18' crab skiff. It's an absolutely Zen way to propel a small boat. You have to do it to understand that.

Absolutely. Sadly not many of us have 18' crab boats. A mate of ours has an absolutely lovely 'peapod'. I've never sculled her but she is a joy to row. To get the most out of sculling (or rowing for that matter) something better than the average yacht tender is required. Its most unfortunate that for most of us these days our tenders are rubbish when it comes to rowing.

[patrickbryant]

Twice now the stupid air pump that runs on dead dinosaurs quit. Both times, I was in the harbor with no wind. Stands to reason, that's the only place I'd run the engine anyway.

Day before yesterday, there was not a breath of wind near the harbor, and the bucket of demented parts quit with me 600 feet from the slip. So I sculled home. Sculling involves moving the tiller back and forth like a fish moves a fin. You move it rapidly in one direction, then slowly in the opposite – just like you would move your arms while swimming under water. You change course by moving the tiller only from the center to the opposite side in which you desire to turn. I enjoyed moving along slowly, propelling myself with the tiller. It works, but it's slow. It took me over an hour to get to the mouth of the harbor. I'm not complaining.

I believe this technique is possible on a boat having a wheel instead of a tiller – but considering most boats with wheels require more than a full revolution of the wheel to move the rudder through a full side-to-side deflection, the technique would rapidly exhaust anyone using it. Chalk up another advantage of tillers over wheels.

So once I was in the harbor channel, all these boats passed me. While passing, one skipper asked: "Are you aground?" I said, no, I'm just sculling back to my slip. He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. A sailboat came along (under power) and asked if I needed a tow. I said: "No. Do you?" I then laughed and thanked him, and explained that I was moving along fine by sculling. He said: "Doing what?" I repeated my explanation. He said: "Don't you know that's impossible without a special mount for a long oar?" And I said: "Gee, I wish you'd told me that before I'd sculled my boat this far."

I got it all the way into the harbor and into my slip. The same gentleman was standing on the neighboring dock watching me round the corner, turn 90 degrees right, line up with the slip, and propel my boat ever-so-slowly into its berth. He was all bug-eyed at my violation of the laws of physics. Good thing there weren't any physics cops to catch me.

I sail a Pearson Ariel. It's 25 feet 7 inches overall, and 3,500 pounds gross. For sculling, I believe that size doesn't matter, but patience does.

Your actual mileage may vary.

[seabreeze_97]

Atom Voyages | Improvement Projects, Page 3
It's called a Yuloh in China.

[Knotaclu]

Originally Posted by hphoen

When I was a teenager, our family spent summer vacations in an old farm house on Gwynn's Island, VA, on the Chesapeake Bay. We were adopted by a local waterman by the name of Fossie Smith. He taught me a lot about life on the Bay. One of the things he did was to take the time to teach me how to scull an 18' crab skiff. It's an absolutely Zen way to propel a small boat. You have to do it to understand that.

Wow, hphoen, what a small world. I learned to skull at Gwynn's Island, too. Barn Creek. And knew Fossie. We sill have part of the farm on Barn Creek. Email me if you get a chance. ernie45atAOLdotcom.

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by patrickbryant

Twice now the stupid air pump that runs on dead dinosaurs quit. Both times, I was in the harbor with no wind. Stands to reason, that's the only place I'd run the engine anyway.

Day before yesterday, there was not a breath of wind near the harbor, and the bucket of demented parts quit with me 600 feet from the slip. So I sculled home. Sculling involves moving the tiller back and forth like a fish moves a fin. You move it rapidly in one direction, then slowly in the opposite – just like you would move your arms while swimming under water. You change course by moving the tiller only from the center to the opposite side in which you desire to turn. I enjoyed moving along slowly, propelling myself with the tiller. It works, but it's slow. It took me over an hour to get to the mouth of the harbor. I'm not complaining.

I believe this technique is possible on a boat having a wheel instead of a tiller – but considering most boats with wheels require more than a full revolution of the wheel to move the rudder through a full side-to-side deflection, the technique would rapidly exhaust anyone using it. Chalk up another advantage of tillers over wheels.

So once I was in the harbor channel, all these boats passed me. While passing, one skipper asked: "Are you aground?" I said, no, I'm just sculling back to my slip. He looked at me as if I had grown two heads. A sailboat came along (under power) and asked if I needed a tow. I said: "No. Do you?" I then laughed and thanked him, and explained that I was moving along fine by sculling. He said: "Doing what?" I repeated my explanation. He said: "Don't you know that's impossible without a special mount for a long oar?" And I said: "Gee, I wish you'd told me that before I'd sculled my boat this far."

I got it all the way into the harbor and into my slip. The same gentleman was standing on the neighboring dock watching me round the corner, turn 90 degrees right, line up with the slip, and propel my boat ever-so-slowly into its berth. He was all bug-eyed at my violation of the laws of physics. Good thing there weren't any physics cops to catch me.

I sail a Pearson Ariel. It's 25 feet 7 inches overall, and 3,500 pounds gross. For sculling, I believe that size doesn't matter, but patience does.

Your actual mileage may vary.

Nicely done....

[sailingdog]

Of course, sculling with the rudder tends to be possible only in fairly benign conditions....any sort of contrary current or wind and you're toast.

[WanderingStar]

I've never sculled. I did row my previous two boats (20', one ton; 26', four tons) when necessary. Usually I just waited for a breeze. Rowing them wasn't hard, there was no point in trying to go fast, a steady stroke yielded half a knot. I made a long oar from a piece of spruce staging plank.

[Jeff_H]

I used to row my Folkboat, which did not have an engine. I had a single long sweep which had a loop of line that I tossed over a winch and rowed facing forward. Once up to speed it was pretty easy to keep moving. I would tie the helm slightly over and then varied the speed of my stroke to hold a course.

I have tried sculling bigger boats on a number of occasions and its not that efficient without a properly shaped oar, and I found it hard on the wrists having to rotate the blade under load.

I would not suggest sculling a boat with its rudder as a regular means of transport since it wears out the pindles and gudgeons or the rudder post prematurely.

Jeff

[speciald]

Another way to do it is to fix the rudder amidships and rool the boat from side to side. It works on racing dinghys