Rowing N.E. Dory

After a three mile row on Tomales Bay Sunday night to take in the bioluminescence, my back is bruised from contact with the daggerboard trunk. Are there any rowers who have come up with ideas to make rowing more comfortable?  My previous outings have included sailing so there wasn't as much rowing but that's not always possible. /) Barry

 


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RE: Rowing N.E. Dory

Barry, I'm 6' 1 1/2".  I've rowed my dory for 1 to 2 hours straight without a serious problem with the daggerboard trunk (I feel only a little pressure).  I remove the seat facing me, and the floatation.  That way, I'm pushing with my feet directly against the thwart.  It seems to me that the pressure a rower's back puts on the trunk must be at least partly related to the amount of leg room the rower has.  If too little room is available, I can envision the rower being pushed into the trunk.  So, make sure you have enough leg room (make that, comfortable leg room).  Also, I recall from years in a sliding seat single scull that our coaches told us that it was easy to over-exaggerate the lay-back.  In the dory, try consciously not going back beyond the verticle and see what happens.   Good luck.  Frank

RE: Rowing N.E. Dory

   Hi Barry, I'm a couple of inches taller than Frank, I too remove the sternmost seat which is a big help.  I've done a lot of sliding seat rowing and to me the middle seat seems too low for a powerful stroke.  I've added a piece of 2"x10" cut down to the with of the middle seat.  On top of that I put a gel filled rowing seat cusion that is about 3/4".  The added height allows me to easily get more length at the beginning of the stroke and gives me a straighter / more powerful stroke.  An added benefit is that the height eliminates almost all contact with the centerboard trunk.  Hope this helps!

--- Guy ---

RE: Rowing N.E. Dory

   Thanks Frank and Guy. I've avoided taking out the seat but it clearly is in the way. I'll pull it next time and will try raising the seating position. I can try one of my kayak gel seats on top of some rigid foam. When you mentioned feeling too low it struck a chord. Barry

RE: Rowing N.E. Dory

   Barry...I havent had that issue in rowing my dory, but a guy I met this summer has a dory where he added a pad so the narrow daggerboard trunk feels wider.. like this...he had a piece of thin plywood about 6" high  so it goes to the top of the daggerboard trunk and about 20" wide, glued some foam to it, and glued a couple sticks (like paint sticks) on each side of the back of the plywood to help it stand up..it just slips in against the tapered part of the daggerboard trunk

Curt

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