Has anyone used a Chinese yuloh? The single bent sculling oar over the stern. I have lashed one together for my BayCruiser, but have no idea how it might work on the water. I have posted some photos on my blog. Any comments or advice appreciated.
http://daisygracebaycruiser20no1.blogspot.com/2010/03/yuloh.html

Hi Ron.
I have no idea if it will work yet. The two sections of the yuloh were about 6ft (1.8m) long initially, with a slight overlap at the joint. That was just the length the wood came in from the shop. The pivot socket is a brass end cap from a water pipe and is just screwed and epoxied to the under side of the handle just near the joint. I decided that the handle projected too far into the cockpit so I have sawn about 10 inches off it. So the blade is about 1.8m long and the handle about 1.6m I think the blade may be too short, and needs more projection into the water, but I haven\\\'t tried yet. The angle is about 11 degrees, for no particular reason. 12-13 degrees might stow better beside the cabin.
The pivot is a 10mm coach bolt fitted to the platform I have bolted on the rear deck for a boarding ladder. That meant I didn\\\'t have to do anything drastic to the boat and can take it all off if it doesn\\\'t work. I ill try to post photos of it below

Julian,
Did you ever get around to testing your Yuloh?  I was pointed towards this thread from the pedal power one.

A quick google it seems that a Yuloh could be perfect for those of use who want to get rid of the outboard.  I found one reference to propelling a five ton thirty foot yacht at 2 knots.

I wonder if the mizen will get in the way.

Best wishes
Simon

Julian,

Guess what I shall be making as soon as I get home?  (I am in Bournemouth at present without a boat :-(  )

Simon

I found this video on t\\\' web : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MQsdLpWaM

if it works on a Drascombe then it WILL work on a BR!

Simon

This French-invented solution to the problem of lack of expertise in sculling looks interesting http://www.duckworksbbs.com/gear/scullmatix/index.htm.

It includes links to YouTube videos of the inventor and others doing some fairly nifty sculling.

I watched the video clip of the \\\'device\\\', and was unimpressed. (In fact I was tempted to use a much less flattering word.) In a small, eminently scullable boat, the gent in question was doing less than half the boat speed he would have achieved if he\\\'d taken the time and trouble do learn to scull properly, with no more effort and much more elegantly than his clunkety clunk progress.

There\\\'s a strange mystique around sculling, I suppose because few people do it these days. It isn\\\'t difficult. It\\\'s a knack, like riding a bike, rowing effectively etc. Some people find it easier than others (remember those first attempts on a bike, and your friends got the hang of it quicker than you did? - mine did, anyway). It needs practice and perseverance at first, until you do it without thinking about it. In my mid teens, staying with a friend who lived in Gorran Haven (Cornwall), we messed about in an old, heavy clinker-built rowing boat, and by the end of the fortnight we could get up a fair turn of speed sculling, and manoeuvre round and past other craft. The final laugh may be on me, but I hope that it will come back to me, as bike riding does even after years. I hope that my 12 ft Trouper, once built, will be scullable with an 8 ft oar. It should work, says he ever the optimist.

A yuloh is a long sculling oar as refined for bigger boats by those clever Chinese (remember, this is your resident junk rig freak speaking). This is one area of human activity where size really does matter. Simon mentioned the length a yuloh needs to be, and I think this is the biggest obstacle. Plus you guys with (relatively) big boats have more to move: and you further complicate things with your mizen masts and suchlike. The \\\'tenders\\\' (I don\\\'t know what they called them- certainly not that!) of Thames barges were about 15 ft, sculled with an oar which was probably 12 ft long. So, unless you can stow a really long yuloh aboard, or think of a way to make it sectional and still strong enough in the loom, it\\\'s back to discussing the relative merits of electric or ICE outboards.

However, if you get the chance to scull, do try it and persevere with getting the knack. It\\\'s fun, and potentially useful.

(SP Cadenza)

Simon

A long oar curved for stowage is a brilliant idea. I guess that getting the blade in the right plane for yulohing (now there\\\'s a word) will be important - presumably the flat of the blade in the same plane as the curve? Let us all know how you get on.

Re unstayed carbon masts, I\\\'ve just got a CF tube to make a new mast for Cadenza (should have been two - one for the new Trouper once built - but one got damaged in transit and has had to go back). Amazing stuff, and I reckon less than a third of the weight of the aluminium one, which was actually seriously over-engineered for my purposes. CF doesn\\\'t half blunt a saw when you cut it. I\\\'m looking forward to getting the new mast into action.

(SP Cadenza)0