# Cataract: The Titanic of Oars



## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

counterbalanced or not counterbalanced?

I'm assuming you are referring to standard shafts. the counterbalance plus the weight of the oar exceeds the weight of the displaced water and they will sink whatever you do unless you add extra external floatation.

also based on your description they must have stayed pretty much level and then you saw the tip of the blades right before they disappeared ...

they make these things called oar tethers that effectively also prevent an oar from waving bye bye ...


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

Not counterbalanced. If you aren't strong enough to hold your oars out of the water, you have no business rowing a raft.

The oars sunk blade first. The last thing we saw was the handle.


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

The Mogur said:


> Not counterbalanced. If you aren't strong enough to hold your oars out of the water, you have no business rowing a raft.
> 
> The oars sunk blade first. The last thing we saw was the handle.


Sorry to hear about all of your lost oars, expensive loss. Nothing more frustrating then investing in a quality piece of equipment only to lose it so soon.

Guess I am officially in the realm of weaklings who shouldn't be on the river. Been rowing counterbalanced cataracts this season and I have no reason to go back to other options. Not sure its about being strong enough (though admittedly I lack the standard macho gene) and more about efficient use of energy. Spent most of my rowing life using heavy and rigid Carlisle oars....does that gain me some street cred for rowing worthiness? THough I will say, rowing the Selway last year with wooden oars provided a different experience that I enjoyed.

As a thought experiment.....if you aren't smart enough to use an oar tether than you have no business rowing a raft? Understand how that may come across? Might be a few more shades of grey out there then you seem to vocalize.

Hope the new system works the way you hope. 

Phillip


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

The Mogur said:


> Not counterbalanced. If you aren't strong enough to hold your oars out of the water, you have no business rowing a raft.
> 
> The oars sunk blade first. The last thing we saw was the handle.


This makes no sense. How heavy / what type are the blades you were using?

I would assume if the blades were neg bouyant they would drop vertical and you'd have about 2 or three feet of shaft out of the water. Once the shaft goes vertical there is almost no way for the air to get displaced from inside the handles.

Cataract blades are positively buoyant, I think

I can see however how sealing them should at least give you another pound or so of buoyancy (the weight of the volume of water that can fill the shaft)


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## Pcdc2 (Jan 24, 2011)

I've struggled with this debate in my head for awhile. I have cataracts with the magnum blade (HATE the Carlisle blades) not counter balanced. While I don't want to lose an oar if I flip and don't have oar tethers (watching one sink would be a serious bummer), I also have real concerns about using oar tethers. They just seem like terrifying entrapment hazards to me. If I'm swimming after a flip and get wrapped up in a tether attached to an oar it seems like things could go bad fast. So far I've stuck with risking an oar rather than risking a life and skipped tethers.


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

Sorry Phil, I spoke hastily--mainly because the counter-weight question has been thoroughly hashed over. I strongly suspect that most people who find the need to weight their oars are using oars that are too long for the distance between their oarlocks, or they are allowing too much space between the handles.

For most rowers, the optimum oar length will be 1.5 times the distance between the oarlocks (6' between oarlocks means 9' oars), and the oar stops or clips should be 2/3 of the way up the oar from the tip of the blade. 

I often see oars set up with the oar stops or clips 3/4 of the way up the oar. That is bound to make the oars feel heavy. With that kind of position, your rowing leverage would be greatly reduced, and you would need to be a much _stronger_ rower. 

So, Phil, and all of you short-handle oarsmen, you are not weak. You are probably stronger than I am. But still, I'm a fairly good boatman, and I stand by the time-tested formula.


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## cataraftgirl (Jun 5, 2009)

Another counterbalance wimp here. Use'em, Love'em. Anything that helps me out on long days of rowing is good by me. I'd love to be rowing for the next 20 years if I can, and if that means using counterbalance oars to get me there, then so be it.

Sucks that you lost oars. Hope your system helps. Let us know how it works out.


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

Avatard said:


> What type are the blades you were using?
> 
> Once the shaft goes vertical there is almost no way for the air to get displaced from inside the handles.


As I said, I'm using Carlisle outfitter blades, not Cataract blades (the reason I made this choice is a subject for a different thread).

As to how the air gets out, the handles are not airtight. They do allow air to seep out. When I figure out how to seal them, I'll let you know.


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

Pcdc2 said:


> I've struggled with this debate in my head for awhile. I have cataracts with the magnum blade (HATE the Carlisle blades) not counter balanced. While I don't want to lose an oar if I flip and don't have oar tethers (watching one sink would be a serious bummer), I also have real concerns about using oar tethers. They just seem like terrifying entrapment hazards to me. If I'm swimming after a flip and get wrapped up in a tether attached to an oar it seems like things could go bad fast. So far I've stuck with risking an oar rather than risking a life and skipped tethers.


Cat blades and cat shaft combo alone may be positively buoyant even if full of water. If not, sealing them would ensure that. I guess it depends if the fiberglass and resin floats. Should have checked this last time I cut some.

The issue with no tethers is do you feel lucky if you flip? You and your oars can be separated by miles if you eddy out and your oar continues on. A short tether with a quick release buckle resolves this. 

Get the yellow shafts they are easier to spot on the river than the blue


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

The Mogur said:


> As I said, I'm using Carlisle outfitter blades, not Cataract blades (the reason I made this choice is a subject for a different thread).
> 
> As to how the air gets out, the handles are not airtight. They do allow air to seep out. When I figure out how to seal them, I'll let you know.


Unless you have the changeable handle option, they are epoxied in place and won't leak air unless the epoxy has cracked

I would squirt some tire sealant down them if for some reason yours are leaking


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## BruceB (Jun 8, 2010)

*Use wimpy tethers*

Use light cord for your tethers - 40 or 50 lb test. It will break if things get really screwed up, yet keep your oar within reach if it pops out.

I watched someone's oar sink Saturday, then noticed I broke the tip off a 35 year-old ash oar. I bought four in 1988 and they were 10 years old at that time. Most of the last 25 years have been spent in creeks and rocky rivers and peak flows so that's pretty good I think. One of the four is left intact. I am sticking with wood. I will buy a few now and make some myself later in the year.

As far as counterbalancing, that could replace the cooler drain/not drain thread which has died off. I thought the spare tip forward/spare oar tip back thread might catch on but it didn't. 

Bruce


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

The Mogur said:


> Sorry Phil, I spoke hastily--mainly because the counter-weight question has been thoroughly hashed over. I strongly suspect that most people who find the need to weight their oars are using oars that are too long for the distance between their oarlocks, or they are allowing too much space between the handles.
> 
> For most rowers, the optimum oar length will be 1.5 times the distance between the oarlocks (6' between oarlocks means 9' oars), and the oar stops or clips should be 2/3 of the way up the oar from the tip of the blade.
> 
> ...


No worries. I have rather thick skin.

I worry about oars being lost. I use tethers for that reason and would never go on a river with counterbalanced ones without them. 

The solution you provide makes sense for the setup you have. Actually rather eloquent all things considered. I will have to look into options with mine. Never shopped around on the cataract blades until this year, we just didn't have the money at the time to get some with our shafts. Always hard to prioritize gear.

Thinks for the photos. Please follow-up if you get the chance to test it out and have some results (hopefully intentional, not by accident). And may most of us not pop any oars this season and need to find out about the vulnerability of our purchases.

Phillip


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## DanCan (Jul 22, 2011)

I went for a swim in WW 3 weeks ago. I tried the suggestion of some people here for oar tethers of just tying a length of mule tape (don't know the official name) with bowlines on the frame and oar. Worked AWESOME. During my swim the oar beat me a couple of times, no big deal, just knew it was there.

Then the raft got stuck on the left side of Skull upside down. The tethers worked so well that finally we had to cut one so the oar would stop flipping around and we kept having to dodge it while trying to get the raft free.

When wall was said and one, the oar that was doing the water dance ended up with a bent shaft and broken blade so it wouldn't have mattered if I had lost it anyway.

DanCan


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

DanCan said:


> When wall was said and one, the oar that was doing the water dance ended up with a bent shaft and broken blade so it wouldn't have mattered if I had lost it anyway.
> 
> DanCan


Carlisle?


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## DanCan (Jul 22, 2011)

Yes, Carlisle, but honestly, the washing machine treatment and rock beating it got I don't think would have been survived any better by any other oar. It was pretty spectacular for 10 minutes or so.

DanCan


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## spider (Jun 20, 2011)

DanCan said:


> Yes, Carlisle, but honestly, the washing machine treatment and rock beating it got I don't think would have been survived any better by any other oar. It was pretty spectacular for 10 minutes or so.
> 
> DanCan


Did you get video of that ?! 

As far as the cats go, I have plugs, and tethers. Ill pass on the CB.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

DanCan said:


> I went for a swim in WW 3 weeks ago. I tried the suggestion of some people here for oar tethers of just tying a length of mule tape (don't know the official name) with bowlines on the frame and oar. Worked AWESOME. During my swim the oar beat me a couple of times, no big deal, just knew it was there.
> 
> Then the raft got stuck on the left side of Skull upside down. The tethers worked so well that finally we had to cut one so the oar would stop flipping around and we kept having to dodge it while trying to get the raft free.
> 
> ...


Counterweights?


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

Avatard said:


> Unless you have the changeable handle option, they are epoxied in place and won't leak air unless the epoxy has cracked.


Three of my Cataract oar shafts are twenty years old. One is six years old. The handles in the older ones are glued-in, but not with epoxy. The glue in all three was failing to some extent. I sanded them and the insides of the shafts and used quick-setting epoxy to glue them in.

There is a plastic plug in the end of the handle, under the grip, and on one oar, the plug was loose and had to be re-glued.

The material the shafts are made of is heavier than water, and the Carlisle blades are neutral to slightly negative buoyancy, so the oars depend on the air inside the shafts for flotation.

My brother, after sinking his oar in the Middle Fork, filled his oar shafts with caulking foam from Home Depot. I'm pretty sure that will work, but I think there may be some risk of the foam becoming waterlogged over time.


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## Wounded Knee (Jul 5, 2011)

*But there was a happy ending . . .*

It was a train wreck. Just a couple of miles from the Boundary Creek launch, three rafts in our group tried to go left of a big rock. Maybe they should should have gone right. All three got hung up on the rocks and each other. Not much warning as I came around the bend . . . I pulled hard right, but my path was blocked by Madonna, a big cat. I glanced off Madonna, then hit the big rock broadside. Should not been no big deal . . . I was expecting to bounce off and get flushed out to the right. Instead, the right side of my raft started to climb the rock, so we shifted our bodies toward it. The entire right side of the raft immediately folded under, flipping the raft and dumping us into the drink for a fast moving, half-mile swim. As we were bouncing off shallow rocks I was stunned to see the entire front right tube had deflated. The Mogur was below the mayhem and helped to corral the runaway raft and our older brother. We were finally able to get the raft stopped at the base of a steep rock embankment; The Mogur continued on in pursuit of the now vertical runaway oar. 

The Achilles had suffered an L-shaped tear about the size of a cantaloupe. It took two tries and a whole can of cement to affix large inside and outside patches that would hold air. The Mogur had lost sight of the sinking oar about a quarter mile below and eddied out, where he waited for us. There was no possible path on our side of the river. After maybe two hours, we were able to re-launch and join The Mogur. We were discussing the lost oar when we caught a glimpse of something yellow on the bottom, a few feet away. Bro-in-law Chris volunteered for the dive and found my oar at the bottom of the eddy, 8 feet down.


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## Wounded Knee (Jul 5, 2011)

*Forensic reconstruction showed . . .*

Having revisited the scene of the crime last summer, the most logical explanation for the Achilles tear seems to be that when we hit Madonna, her spare oar ripped the tube open.


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## jrice345 (Jan 11, 2011)

I've thought about injecting low expansion foam (the canned stuff for sealing doors and windows) into the shafts of my Cataracts. Use some vinyl tubing so it is deposited up the shaft a bit. Anyone else tried this?


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## oarframe (Jun 25, 2008)

*results?*

maybe I missed it, but how did the experiment turn out?
Did the oars float, or sink like the Titanic?


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## Schutzie (Feb 5, 2013)

Compelled to toss my two cents in even though it will likely start a war;

Always used wood. Manufactured ones that we glassed the blades and necks of, then painted in company colors.

Also these God awful "Apatong" oars made out of some exotic wood that weighed more than steel, and were absolute torture to row with. Heavy, unwieldy, cumbersome monsters that had very little power to them. Hated those things, but it might be because I was using them when I learned the unforgettable (painful) lesson about why you never, ever, wrap your thumb around the end of the handle.

I rowed the Grand with Carlisles; they worked, but i never liked the feel, they felt like what they were; plastic and aluminum toys in my opinion. I do recall that the shafts had been filled with closed cell foam tubes (I don't know where the owner found closed cell foam tubes; this was before the internet) and the ends capped with plugs, cause, you know, he said otherwise they filled with water and would sink.

We never counter balanced any of the oars, and on an 18' boat with a 6' beam we used 11' oars with an inch between the handles. Some wit suggested drilling the shafts and adding lead, but he was a sissy who quit after the first training trip. Even the women would row all day, although they tended to bitch more about the Apatong oars and refused to do any chores around camp that night.

If I was shopping for oars I'd buy wood. I'd glass the blades and necks, and paint them a pretty color.

And I'd use a tether, cause that's the way I was trained, and then I wouldn't worry about it cause, you know, wood floats.

In my opinion wood oars are more durable, and in the long run, less expensive than plastic, but I'll admit it's been a few years since I rowed anything.


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## punisher660 (Jul 6, 2013)

jrice345 said:


> I've thought about injecting low expansion foam (the canned stuff for sealing doors and windows) into the shafts of my Cataracts. Use some vinyl tubing so it is deposited up the shaft a bit. Anyone else tried this?



I have to older Cataract shafts from the guy I bought my boat from. I bought a new one for my spare. The new one looks the same, but it has a foam core to ensure floatation. The older ones didn't have the core, so I found some large rummer corks in the Lowes hardware section.

Put the cork in until it stops (the diameter is larger than the oar shaft) cut off all excess hanging out of the oar, then ram the cork in far enough so that your paddle fits. Super snug fit, will last for years, and can be removed with a long drill bit if needed.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

It is weird that your cataract oars didn't come with plugs. Mine always have, and now I check. I first discovered the plugs when water got stuck inside one oar, and it took a while to get it to drain/dry out. I put an additional plug in that oar, and have never run into it again.

Personally I like counter balanced on mellow water (raft), nonCB on wilder stuff (cat). I once flipped with CB's and open oarlocks. Both oars popped out (but that is stuff for another thread) and both oars dove from the CB handles and jammed into the rocks below. They were pretty darn stuck. It was pretty tough to get them out, I was getting close to cutting the tethers. Could not have reflipped the boat with two anchors holding it down.


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## CBrown (Oct 28, 2004)

What about putting children's type water wings on your oars. Low cost, easy to acquire, easy to stow, lots of colorful choices and some extra padding for when whack the kayakers who creep up on you for beer.


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

Cat shafts are pretty light and IMO rarely need to be counterbalanced. Even my 11' oars violate the 1:3 golden ratio and still easy row and not fatiguing.

Call me a puss but there's something nice about the idea of not getting punched in the mouth or whacked on the back of the head by a four pound chunk of steel.


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## denachuck (Jan 12, 2012)

My 1-year old cataract shafts did not come with foam float plugs. I emailed customer service, asked for 6 plugs (2 per oar), and I had them in a couple days- free of charge.


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