O is for Oars

In addition to a boat(!), oars are the second most essential piece of rowing kit. They are fastened to the sides of a vessel by projecting through rowlocks, or upward-projecting pins called ‘tholes’. These form a fulcrum, or balance point, and the rower can pull on the pole, or handle, which drops the broad end into the water, and pushes the boat forward. As the edge of the vessel takes the weight of the oar, they can be much longer, generate more power and move bigger boats than paddles do. Competitive rowers face the rear, or stern, away from the direction of travel, and either have to periodically look over their shoulders or carry a cox to steer.

Boats are classed according to the number of oars each crew member holds. The styles are either sculling (a pair of oars, one in each hand), or sweeping (two hands pulling one oar, arranged alternately over both upper edges, or ‘gunwales’).

Leather ‘buttons’ formed a collar round the oar, to stop them slipping through the rowlocks. All the equipment has developed over the last 150 years of intense competition and experimentation. Sliding seats allowed rowers to add the power of their legs to the force of their strokes; various shapes of blades and new materials were tested, as were rowlocks and outriggers.

The commonest blade shape used today is the Cleaver, (sometimes called a Hatchet). Roughly rectangular, it has a slightly angled upper, and much deeper lower portion, to increase blade efficiency in the water. Cleavers largely replaced the symmetrical, tulip-shaped ‘Macon’ style blade in the 1990s. Carbon fibre has now replaced wood, combining greater rigidity with less weight.

The Victorian mania for invention produced multiple examples of ‘new, improved’ and ‘patented’ rowlock forms. The ‘swivel’ allows the bracket to move with the oar, rather than impeding it, letting the rower rotate and manipulate the oar freely. By mounting rowlocks on projecting lightweight frames, or ‘outriggers’ the oars’ leverage is increased, while the boat is narrower, literally streamlined, and hence even faster. These developments all prioritised elite athletic efficiency and speed.

As with any claims to being the earliest, various dates appear for when swivel rowlocks were invented, or first appeared in Glasgow races. The Claspers, a family of Tyne boatbuilders and rowers, used outriggers in 1844, and Oxbridge soon adopted them. By 1847, the Claspers’ ‘oars were shorter than usual, but with blades of an extraordinary width’, and in 1851, the Great Exhibition committee had a special aquatic technology demonstration at Richmond in London, previewing outriggers. The 1851 Glasgow regatta was also the first to specify ’4-oared 27 ft outrigger gigs, ’and separate ’23 ft rowlock gig’ races. The city’s oarsmen were, literally, at the cutting edge of design.

Because of the cost of equipment, it was offered as prizes to both amateurs (who were better-off) and ‘professionals’ (financially poorer, despite the terminology). Glasgow boatbuilder G McGruer donated a pair of oars in 1853, and rival craftsman James Geddes (Humane Society officer, and oar-maker) spectacularly outdid him by offering a ‘new four-oared gig with new oars, worth £10’. Each prize was a blatant advert for their own boatyard businesses!

Tiny crossed oars and anchors, on gold or silver lapel pins, were commonly awarded as prizes for gentlemen’s races. However, they were worth as much as the ‘professional’ prizes, showing the discreet hypocrisy of enforcing the various social divisions. Wooden ‘illuminated’ oars, showing various team liveries or colours, also formed trophies, as did painted rudders, on which sign-writers wrote team and boat names in gold letters. Because rowing is often a communal effort, these were retained by the winning club. Each (successful!) club accumulated their own collection, some of which are now on display in the refurbished West Boathouse. This includes illuminated oars from the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race and an oar by Edward Ayling & Sons, famed racing oar and shell manufacturer established in Putney in 1859. This family-run business survived till 2007.