double ended rowable or paddleable boat.

I spent a few hours today mocking up my salmon trolling setup.

sitting this way, sitting that way, hooking up a rod tube here, there, etc.

well that seems to be coming together, but it's not quite ready for presentation.

While doing that I had one kooky idea that might be worth airing.

What if the seating area allowed seating at either end, and scotty-type
oarlocks were employed, and a 2 piece paddle that would allow either
rowing or paddling? You could paddle out there, then row while trolling,
then paddle back.

On my scrambler I would sit backwards and fish off the stern. worked
great for drifting with the bow to the waves and wind.

even on my SPTW, I am going with a really low back brace and I'll probably
sit on the hatch and out of the water for some drift fishing.

You know, if you fish in santa cruz, you see a few rowers go by, rowing
their long rowing sculls.  would kick ass for trolling or whenever you need
a break from paddling. I think you get a lot more power rowing than you
do paddling. legs and back can be employed.

Paul, what do you think? crazy or a future niche in human powered salmon slaying?

probably crazy but if you could make your own experimental fibreglass hulls this would
be a cool thing to try.

I had a buddy that used a kayak paddle in his canoe. He was every bit as fast as I was in my canoe with one paddle
and it seemed like it was easier.

As for rowing, I think you're on the wrong track. You'd need to mount frames that would put your oarlocks out further over
the water or you would have a very limited range of motion. Mounting frames would impede on the whole kayak concept of
portability. Not to mention the extra problems of fishing lines tangling up in them.

well a row boat doesn't have extenders. a scull does, but it's super narrow.  a kayak is in between.

so how far out do you have to go to be able to row? I don't know.

Maybe you could have oarlocks that sit on the equivalent of scotty rod holder things. removable.

yeah, it's crazy, but bluekayaks grandma trolled for salmon from a rowboat, so somewhere in there
is some kind of possibility, I just don't know where. maybe get a really wide fish n dive type boat,
put oarlocks on that. you'd have short oars, but maybe that wouldn't matter, with trolling it's
the power you want not the speed?

I'm not too serious about this, but thinking is free entertainment.

There's no set distance, but in a perfect world it would have something to do with the kayaks hull speed, stroke rate, size
size of oar blade.

But here's something concrete to think about:

1)Have you ever paddled a two man rubber raft, now there's an example of too
short of a paddle length

2) A typical skull or rowing shell seems like a good model, but there is a problem with that.
They have seats that move and allow your body to use the added length to the oars.

3) The length of your oars is a function of where your hands are, where the oarlock is and how
you want your hands when the oar blades hit the water. this may be less important in a kayak, but
something to think about. This gets back to the two man raft model with short oars and stroke.

basilkies, sounds like you know something of all this.

the motivation for the idea is three-fold:

1. scullers go by in monterey bay while you fish. they are moving.

2. blue said his grandma trolled from a row boat.

3. trolling is a high-torque, low rpm type of deal. plus looking back is
actually advantageous for trolling. hence rowing.

How that can be leveraged to a good human powered salmon catching craft?

no clue.

but we are definitely in the early days of this human powered fishing
thing. right now the salmon trollers can be counted on the fingers of two hands,
if not one. So nobody cares. But it's still an interesting question. One that the
kayak manus could probably solve if they wanted to solve.

I've done some trolling out of my Pygmy Wherry, and while it makes it easy to watch my rod, watching where I'm going is another matter. (And watching out for dangerously curious PBers can get real exciting.  ) In either the rowboat or a kayak you're handicapped with hands that are full. Not so bad when I get a hit, as the easiest mistake seems to be setting the hook too early (this is for kings). The real trouble is controlling the line and the boat as I'm letting line out. If the boat is moving too slowly, my gear hits bottom. Start rowing (if I'm not already snagged or fouled with weeds), and the gear lifts up and ends up suspended well off the bottom. Thats not so good, as around here, being within 10-15 feet of the bottom can be key. It all has me wondering how easy it would be to fish out of one of the Hobie pedal boats, especially the new Adventurer. Any way, all the hassle of trrolling has me prefering mooching and jigging.

but we are definitely in the early days of this human powered fishing
thing.

Maybe we as individuals, but really I think we're re-inventing the wheel. Infernal combustion motors haven't been around all THAT long!

I can't find a link or picture, but "Mainstream" made a SOT kayak that was set up for rowing It is called the "Jon Buoy" I looked at it before I bought my kayak it look OK.

I used to "help" my brother in law troll for trout at lake Cachuma years ago when I was just a sprout. He had a nice new england style dory ( I think that is what it was called). He would row & I would sit in the stern & hold the rod. He used leadcore with a gold needlefish most often & he caught trout like crazy with that boat. He finally traded it in for a kayak once he moved closer to the ocean. Thing is, the lake was always like a mirror when we went out at dawn. I don't often see conditions like that here on the ocean. Still, there must be a way to set up a rowing craft to excel in this at sea. I have seen a dory or two out in front of the harbor on calm mornings...
intersting thread!
Sean

Did you guys ever check out these boats? They would blow away my wherry. They could also be built to be self-bailing.

http://www.merrywherry.com/mtwo.html

http://www.merrywherry.com/verry.html

The RowWing and sweeps (oars for sculls) are kind of pricy, but the performance is something else.

Jmairy, you wrote:

well a row boat doesn't have extenders. a scull does, but it's super narrow.  a kayak is in between.

so how far out do you have to go to be able to row? I don't know.

Maybe you could have oarlocks that sit on the equivalent of scotty rod holder things. removable.

Some answers for your entertainment:

The oarlocks work best with at least 4' spacing, whether they are on the rail of the boat or extended outboard- any shorter and the oars need to be awfully short. In order to get a maximum oar length some overlap at the handles can be tolerated (my wherry's oars are set up this way). The only problems are with coordination and rough water where a wave will occasionally catch me by surprise and slam one handle into the other, with my hands and fingers being smashed between.

I've seen oarlocks that were a folding type. They were hinged (parallel to the sides) so that they could be folded in when not used, (reducing the beam) or folded out for use. Found something. Check out these (expensive) "outrigger oarlock brackets"

http://www.shawandtenney.com/catalog/detail.php?ID=6499&Category=Marine_Hardware&pageNum_cart=/catalog/index.php

You only gain 4" on each side (8" beam), but that could make a real difference, allowing an oar that was 6-12" longer than otherwise practical.

Have fun!

that is a cool site.

when you see this



it does make you wonder what could be done.