Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/177

 be improved upon in divers respects, ¢.g: as to oars, for sliding seats the length ‘inboard ’ should not be less than 3 ft. 7} in. to 3 ft. 8 in. ; otherwise, when the oarsman swings back there is not sufficient length of handle to enable his outside hand to finish square to his chest, and with the elbow well past the side. ‘The sliding-seat oar requires to be at least 1o inches longer inboard than the fixed-seat oar, for the above reason ; and in order to counterpoise this extra leverage, it is customary to use blades an inch wider for slides than for fixed seats, viz. 6 inches wide at the greatest breadth, instead of 5 inches as of old.

Again, as ta distance of the plane of the thowl perpendicu- larly from that of the front of the slide when full forward. This should not be less than 6} inches, in the writer’s opinion, even with a 16-inch slide. If the oarsman slides nearer than the above to his work, he does not gain; for much of his force is thus expended in jamming the oar back against the rowlock, rather than in propelling the boat. He ‘feels’ extra resistance, and may accordingly delude himself that he is doing more work, if the slides close up; but in reality he is wasting his powers.

In modern racing boats, the men slide too close to their work ; and if any builder will haye the courage to set his men further aft than is the custom (say about 6} to 7 inches), he will find his ship travel all the faster,

As to shapes of hull: the earliest Mat Taylor boats have never been surpassed, in the writer’s opinion, and were much faster than the modern builds. ‘The peculiarity of Mat Taylor’s build was that he put his greatest beam well forward, about No. 3's middle or seat. Such boats held more ‘way’ than more modern craft, which are fullest amidships,

Builders of the present day construct as if the only problem which they had to solve was to force a hole through the water in front of the boat, This is not all that is necessary in order to get a boat to travel well. A racing boat leaves a yacuum bebind her, and until that is filled she is sucked back into that vacuum,