Taking a break from the start up work for the business and the worries of how to make it all work is important for me. Moreover, getting on the water is my professional development. Using boats, thinking about how they go through the water, and trying new oars or different ways to rig the boat for sailing all matter to my finished products coming out of the shop.

Oars are a key product for my business and every time I row some new nuance of rowing and oars is realized. In these photos, you can see Portland Head Light and the stern of Drake and the oars I made specifically to Drake and my physique and style of rowing. The Spruce oars are spoon blade oars with lead in the handle so they counterbalance beautifully. These 9'1" oars are excellent in rough water because the blades are only 4-1/2" wide and have their maximum blade area outboard, providing the most propulsion. I don't need to feather these oars even going upwind. Certainly, there is more resistance but the energy feathering in rough water isn't always worthwhile.

Those two elements above won't change much. The hull form and my bodily form won't vary over time, but the conditions around me will. Wind, tidal current, waves/chop, my energy level and boat speed will all change. Upwind rowing and downwind rowing require different oars, for instance. You want a shorter oar to enable a higher stroke rating going upwind. Downwind you can use a lower rating and a longer oar and/or a larger blade area. Choppy conditions may require switching to the shorter oar. But once the wind goes calm and the water is flat, the longer oar will be more efficient. So, a good rower and rowboat needs to carry two sets of oars. For Drake, the ideal combination would be a 8'9"-8'10" spoon blade oar for upwind work and a 9'2-9'3" with a short, wide carbon blade for downwind work or calm conditions. It takes time to figure out what works for you and your boat. After a full season, I'm realizing this and luckily the 9'1" spoon blade oars have been a great all around oar to use for Drake and I.

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Vacuum Infusion Process (VIP) is the name of the technique used to make composites. In Maine, this is the new generation of composites and much of our advancement in the state is owed to the North Star Alliance which administers Federal funding Maine received a few years ago and to the Maine Advanced Technology Center which trains people in VIP using world experts in the technology. VIP is easy in concept, difficult in practice: the reinforcements for the part (carbon, kevlar, fiberglass, core materials). Our oar blades are a couple layers of Carbon Fiber on either side of a core called, Soric. The core adds stiffness without much weight; the carbon gives the strength. HOW the carbon is sized, the weave pattern, the fiber orientation all impact the properties of the oar. This will take time to develop, but we believe it is worthwhile. Part of the difficulty is that so few are taking on VIP in small shops to produce part. WE ARE PAVING OUR OWN WAY!

These pictures show some of the behind-the-scenes of the process. The carbon fiber is a woven fabric like any that cuts with scissors. We cut it to a pattern a little oversize. The carbon has a stiffness to it that harks to it's eventual properties when infused with resin. Yet, it drapes like any fabric might. The shop is getting a little cool now so, to keep mold temperatures and ambient curing temperatures up, we create a warm environment with good-ol' lamps. There will be plenty more to show after the next set of blades is complete this week.

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It has been awhile so this is a quick overall update on projects:

* Goat Island Skiff kits can be cut anytime. Marketing for kits will begin by late Winter time and CNC cutting will be part of the plan. Meetings with CNC companies will happen early winter. I am taking coursework in Rhino/CAD to enable me to create files, modify files, and give them to CNC cutters.

* The Deblois Street Dory lines and offsets are finished an available. Hull #1 is being built by a customer here in Portland. Construction and sail plans are being produced now and plans will be available this winter. Kits for the D St. D will eventually be produced for the kit catalog.

*Frolic, the Flying Fifteen is as it was upon delivery. The keel comes off in the next week. As this is a personal side project, progress on it depends on how much customer work is going on at the time. Clearly, we have been busy with customers, so Frolic sits awaiting her complete restoration.

*Carbon fiber blade-Spruce oars are underway and will be part of a line of custom and semi-custom oar and paddle offerings that will become part of our specialty line of products. An online shop will be part of this endeavor, but probably won't be set up until early Spring in time for the Boat Shows. The blades are epoxy, vacuum-infused carbon fiber for total lightweight blades and balanced oars.

* Another specialty is Birdsmouth mast and spar construction for craft up to 22'. In the shop, staves are being cut for a Shellback Dinghy and Goat Island Skiffs. We use beautiful White Spruce and Sitka Spruce. We'll be combining the two species to make beautiful masts. Clint will have a line of mast types to choose from revolving around Birdsmouth construction, with different wood species to choose from for the spars.

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