Connie, As I said before, I like the pinned oars, but you bring up a big disadvantage of not be able to feather the oars on the return stroke. Perhaps the best solution is use the round oarlocks that use the leathers and buttons. That way the oar won't ride up and out of the oarlock and you can still feather the back stroke. I've done the pin rounding over four or five times and the problem that I always have is that the pin gets bent a little and restricts the movement of the oar. Once the bent pin enlarged the hole in the oar to about twice it's original size which made rowing sloppy and noisy. Maybe I've been hitting the pin a little too hard. My next oarlocks are going to be the round ones. Now all I need to do is build another rowboat. Any suggestion? Thanks for the oarlock measurements. Rick Langer M15 "Sialia" #337

Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 11:53:30 -0400 From: chbenneck@juno.com Subject: Re: M_Boats: Oarlocks and Oarlock Sockets To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Message-ID: <20040823.115331.108.4.chbenneck@juno.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi Rick,

On my NYMPH, measuring from the transom, my primary set of oarlocks are located at 32" and the forward ones at 59".

I reset both my oarlock sockets and canted them outwards.

The problem you have if you install them as shown on the prints is that when rowing you will tend to cam out the oars out of the oarlock.

By canting the oarlock sockets outboard you are getting a more 90 degree relationship between oarlock and oar when it is in the water, and so the oar doesn't ride up the inside of the oarlock and try to jump out.

If you are using pinned oars, then you don't have this problem; but you can't feather the oars on a return stroke when rowing against a wind................. which I find is a "must be able to do" requirement.

Rick to round over the pin, use the round end of a ball peen hammer. Put the pin on a vise (a solid base) and then start tapping the pin end that you want to lock in place. A few taps with the hammer should round the end of the pin so that it can't fall out.

Connie