Rowing

took the boat out for a test row.  It rows great, even though the oars I had were too long.  The rowing position is just about perfect for balance.  The "thole pin" set up I came up with works great.

Stringer and thole pins.

I used an alternating stroke with the oars to get past the struggle of them being too long and that worked great.  I think I will build a set of oars, 5'6" long just for the boat.  This will allow the oars to travel on the bottom of the boat, fitting between the cross braces.  That would leave me with about 4 feet of oar out of the boat.  It is on the shorter side, but then so is the boat.

I just discovered a boat on Duckworks that is called a "Jackson Pram".  It is very similar to my boat but a 4 inches longer and 7 inches narrower.  It also has no floors so you will sit in any water that comes aboard.  It is designed for a double paddle.

I like the lines on "TARTLET" and I do like the sitting position on the longitudinal thwart/floors.  I used the double paddle after the oars just to compare.  It does well with either but I just prefer rowing.  By the way, it rows pretty fast.

The oars I used came off the skiff.  They are heavy and made portaging a bit of a struggle.   I still have some of the yellow pine left from the crate, it's the same stuff that all the dimensional wood in the pram is taken from.  I think I will use this to make the oars.