Rowing Illustrated

In my boathouse, the racks are built very close together and getting the boats in and out runs the risk of scratching the hull of one boat on the top nuts of the boat above it. What I'm looking for is some way to try and prevent this from happening. Now most everyone will tell me to train the rowers better and to be more careful moving the boats, but with clearance between the boats at +-2 inches and high school rowers moving them, it is inevitable that there will be scratches. We have thought of carpet, but that seems impractical for 8's (the majority of our boats), and we've tried putting cut up pool noodles over the oarlocks, but those always seems to fall off or get spread about everywhere. The noodles seem to be the best option for now but I can't let it go that there may be a simpler way to go about this, does anyone know of anything that can work to stop these scratches?

It's a good question.

Best solution I've seen is slideout racks. It's pricey, but the boat comes out the same way every time and hull slides out where the crown is past the danger point.

I agree you can teach boat handling with a lot of care, and still make mistakes.

I still have the slideout racks built by Matt Franich in 1928 and used at Ky Ebright boathouse until it was demoished several years ago, managed to get in and rescue them. I don't know what kind of wood, but 2 nickel plated brass bearings supported each sliding rack.

We have a "soft gate" boat house. We have a basket full of old socks, many of them generously donated by me. The old socks usually have small holes forming at the heels. We also have signs asking rowers to please put socks over all the oarlocks before placing the boats on racks, and leave them on until the boat is out of the boat house.

The only good thing to come out of the local junior team is a neat solution to this problem. Cut tennis balls in half and attach small bungees so as to make a loop. The half ball goes over the top nut and the bungee loops around the bottom of the pin and holds the ball securely.

A snippet of tubing or garden hose that snugly fits over the top nut and extends just high enough to cover the final threads of the pin.

Other possibility is to find the right nylon cap nut to fit the threads.

http://www.amazon.com/1-2-13-Nylon-Cap- ... B006ZDL9MO

Thanks for the ideas guys! I think think slide out racks are out of the question unless the whole boathouse goes under for some major repair (with our season beginning in 2 weeks, that's a lot of work!) Gdoyle, I've thought of the hose and that sounds great but I never even thought about the nylon covers, that sounds like the best solution. Now time to go shopping for some hose and nylon covers.

Here's one more thought; we had the same problem and some bright spark came up with idea of sliding some large diameter PVC pipes over our existing steel racks.

Abracadabra - instant sliding racks.

We put blocks of wood under the outside side of the boat above, to lift it up at an angle temporarily. This gives a much bigger gap to take the boat out.

For the sculling racks as the boat house is a bit tight for space scullers have to remove one rigger when they put the boat away. Wing riggers have to come off. For the crew boats we have SS dome nuts where possible and an array of cut squash balls and cut foam pipe lagging.

Our boats still have the unmistakable zig zag marks of rigger scratches but hopefully not as many as they might have.

Dud

Plastic/Surgical tubing is nice, find the right size and it will fit snug over the top nut, doesn't need to be removed to row with.

Putting a neoprene drink cozy over the oarlock is a great solution.

We use 6in pieces of pool noodles place over the gate and bolt.

Long'n Strong wrote:The only good thing to come out of the local junior team is a neat solution to this problem. Cut tennis balls in half and attach small bungees so as to make a loop. The half ball goes over the top nut and the bungee loops around the bottom of the pin and holds the ball securely.

And here it is - The Swiss Nut Helmet, brought to us via row2k: http://www.row2k.com/columns/index.cfm? ... ead&id=614

I am glad the Swiss finally get credit for something useful other than the knife... I can actually say that in my club in Switzerland this gadget had been used since 1994 - about the same time we tested the bowmounted rigger...

Rocket-Sauce wrote:Putting a neoprene drink cozy over the oarlock is a great solution.

Must it be the Boston Bruins (proudly sponsored by Bob's Discount Furniture)?