I recently purchased a Japanese sculling oar while cruising the western coast of Izu Peninsula. In Matsuzaki town I came across a boat builder specializing in traditional Japanese wooden boats. I had been looking for a source for the Ro and asked if they had one they would sell. Lo and behold, they did. After some quick calculations on sizing and overall length of the oar- 16’ 8"- and a quicker round of negotiations on price, I was carrying the Ro to the boat.
Now a month later, I’m fitting it out on Voyager of Yokohama. I’ve attached six photos below of the dry fit for those of you who might be interested. If you’ve never heard of the Ro, a Japanese version of the Chinese Yuloh, here’s a video of a Ro in action:
Here’s a link to a video of me cranking on the Ro dockside:
I had been looking for a Ro for over a year and am fitting Voyager with one because I’ve wanted to be independent of the engine should it fail on approaches to anchorages and marinas. Also, the ports I frequent offer good opportunity to enter and leave under sculling power and I’d like to make future passages port-to-port without firing up the engine.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the robeso, the part that will be bolted to the taffrail. For the test run, I lashed the ends of an extended boot hook to my two primary winches and ran a lanyard from this to the Ro. This made all the difference in the world. The lanyard governed the stroke of the oar beautifully.
The most difficult thing thus far has been coming up with a deck mount for the lanyard, which will unfortunately need to be located in the middle of the seating area to the left of the cockpit. Anything like a small fairlead will be too easily dislodged and anything like a bronze pad eye will be a toe stubber/ bottom scratcher of large proportions. So it becomes a question of how to minimize this. One idea I have is to shape some 25mm teak planking into the shape of half a well-worn bar of soap with gentle curves down all sides to the deck. drill a 25mm vertical hole from the top through the bottom, then insert a 5mm bronze rod lengthwise, which would leave the ends of the rod embedded in the teak but reveal some of it through the 25mm hole. The lanyard gets tied around this rod. There will be no toes broken, and hopefully it won’t be that noticeable under the cockpit cushions. I’ve attached a photo of a very rough proof of concept. That’s the idea, anyway.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the robeso, the part that will be bolted to the taffrail. For the test run, I lashed the ends of an extended boot hook to my two primary winches and ran a lanyard from this to the Ro. This made all the difference in the world. The lanyard governed the stroke of the oar beautifully.
The most difficult thing thus far has been coming up with a deck mount for the lanyard, which will unfortunately need to be located in the middle of the seating area to the left of the cockpit. Anything like a small fairlead will be too easily dislodged and anything like a bronze pad eye will be a toe stubber/ bottom scratcher of large proportions. So it becomes a question of how to minimize this. One idea I have is to shape some 25mm teak planking into the shape of half a well-worn bar of soap with gentle curves down all sides to the deck. drill a vertical hole from the top through the bottom, then insert a bronze rod lengthwise, which would leave the ends of the rod embedded in the teak but reveal some of it through the 25mm hole. The lanyard gets tied around this rod. There will be no toes broken, and hopefully it won’t be that noticeable under the cockpit cushions. I’ve attached a photo of a very rough proof of concept. That’s the idea, anyway.
I’m putting the finishing touches on the robeso, the part that will be bolted to the taffrail. For the test run, I lashed the ends of an extended boot hook to my two primary winches and ran a lanyard from this to the Ro. This made all the difference in the world. The lanyard governed the stroke of the oar beautifully.
The most difficult thing thus far has been coming up with a deck mount for the lanyard, which will unfortunately need to be located in the middle of the seating area to the left of the cockpit. Anything like a small fairlead will be too easily dislodged and anything like a bronze pad eye will be a toe stubber/ bottom scratcher of large proportions. So it becomes a question of how to minimize this. One idea I have is to shape some 25mm teak planking into the shape of half a well-worn bar of soap with gentle curves down all sides to the deck. drill a vertical hole from the top through the bottom, then insert a bronze rod lengthwise, which would leave the ends of the rod embedded in the teak but reveal some of it through the 25mm hole. The lanyard gets tied around this rod. There will be no toes broken, and hopefully it won’t be that noticeable under the cockpit cushions. I’ve attached a photo of a very rough proof of concept. That’s the idea, anyway.
Unfortunately, most of the links on the page provided are dead. There isn’t much out there on the Ro. The top youtube link above will show a few other videos, and PDFs can download from:
In Wooden Boat magazine issue: Sept/Oct 2006, there’s a fine article entitled ‘A Different Way To Ro’ by a guy who came from the US to Japan to learn how to build Japanese wooden boats.
Hi Warren , that was my concern too , that of how to tie down the ondeck end of the lanyard .
I did find a solution that would passify me .
From an old Bronze supplier called Bronze star , or was it from Minnies ? , used supplies , I found a diamond shaped bronze stud receiver , if that it could be called that .
Esentially it was a threaded bucket or hole with a diamond surround surface deck plate , which could be set into a dadoed place in the deck , and the eye bolt could be screwed into it , when needed , and the lanyard could be attached to the eye , when the screw-in eye was removed the deck surface was again flat .
I need the oar first to be able to locate just where to place this bronze receiver for that lanyard .
This bronze threaded receiver is not available anymore in my catalogs , but it could be machined from solid bronze block , as well as the eye-bolt .
I don’t have a photo of it , but that could be arranged if needed .
About the Sea Affairs product, no I haven’t. I figured I’d try out the robeso on the taffrail first and if it’s too difficult to keep the ro on the pivot post, I’ll practice more often. The Japanese say it takes three months to perfect the ro, so I’ll give it at least that amount of time. If difficulties persist, then I’ll look to something more mechanical and modern, or reshape the post.
Thanks very much for the link to Toplicht. I’ve gone ahead and ordered the deck plug/ring for Voyager, and hope to have it installed soon.
Bil,
I’ll be in the Kamakura area next month and will contact them to see if the SteelWrist is available. Certainly some modification will be necessary as the ro has a diameter at the attachment point of about 5 inches.
Gee , Warren , I wish that I could advise you better , but you are the one who is pinoneering new ground here , we are all looking over your shoulder , sooo T Y , for your sharing , there will be much good come out of all this , I say !
For what it’s worth, we used a sculling oar during our two year engineless trip from San Francisco to New Orleans (through the Canal). This was in the early 80’s when we were younger and tougher (we now have a hand start 10hp Sabb).
The design was straight mad of ash and about 15 feet long with a typical loom tapered from handle to where it met the 4 foot blade. The blade itself was flat on the bottom and rose to a slight pyramid on top.
I didn’t use a lanyard though it might have made the twisting easier if I had. I simply turned my wrist at the end of the stroke. The oar fitted into an over sized closed oarlock… that is, it had a bail over the top to keep the oar from jumping out.
We were very happy with its performance and sculled into many, many harbors when the wind didn’t cooperate.
I just looked at your photos and I have an off-topic question. I see a green cushion with a solar vent living under your tiller. I can understand why you might want the solar vent. Why the green cushion installed where nobody will ever sit?
My guess, not that I should be guessing, when Warren can just tell us all… but my guess is it’s a wooden hatch with green canvas cover for the laz rather than a cushion.
