Putting oars on a 14ft Flatbottom Jon?

[Travis C.]

I have a 14ft flat bottom that I fish the Caney, Obey etc with. Currently, I just use a trolling motor but  am considering putting oars on it.

Has anyone put oars on their flat bottom before? If, so wood or composite? How long?

The boat is really light weight and am considering this as another option without having to use the trolling motor.

[Bfish]

On raft/pontoon you roughly want 1/3 of the oar inside the boat.  So assuming you have a 1448 (ie 48" floor) with 70" beam, your looking at 9 ft oars. On drift boats you usually have less oar inside the boat, but drift boat rowers usually add lots of weight to counter-balance their oars.

Height of oarlocks will also change things.

If it were me I would look at Carlise. Fairly tough and affordable. You can also get a 1 ft extension, nice for trying out a longer oar.
Composite too expensive (nice but expensive), although the Sawyer Polecats are just above the Carlise prices
Wood, expensive and take regular maintenance.

All are very expensive to ship.  Sometimes it is cheaper to buy the more expensive 2 piece and save money on shipping.

NRS, clavey, inflatableboatpeople, river connection, cascade, etc are online places to look for oars. 

[Travis C.]

I have a S-1418 PolarKraft with a 42" beam. Its a really light weight flatbottom which was why I am thinking about putting oars on it.

The boat already has non-factory sockets so the previouse owner may have done that as well.

Thanks for the info Bfish.

[Bfish]

You might be able to use a light duty wooden oar (Caviness and other brands), however they are pretty fragile.  If you do decide to go with heavier duty pair, 9 ft is pretty standard size to resell to raft/pontoon.

[grumpy]

9' shaft, 2' blade, counterbalanced oars are great & cost more. I have a set of Sawyer wood oars on the current drifter, they don't flex as much as the composite oars, i've had no problems with composite's on my other boat's either.
NRS offers oars & locks, i ordered a set for the Supreme i had, used them while guiding instead of the trolling motor.

Grumpy

[jkilday4]

Travis, did you end up putting oars on it?  If so, how did they turn out?  I've got my 14ftr at the machine shop for installing an adjustable oar arm system (so I can move them up & back to row from mid-bench backward or rear-bench forward).  I've got 7' Carlisle oars with Cataract Magnum blades from my raft that I will be able to use on it & may end up needing the extensions mentioned.  I had Caviness 7ft oars on it & just didn't like the lack of power in these lighter oars plus they just don't hold up over time very well.

[Travis C.]

I have not yet.

It's still in the plans just funds are being shifted other places with Christmas coming. If you get your setup done before I can get back to this let me know how they do or what length is better.

[Bfish]

  I've got 7' Carlisle oars with Cataract Magnum blades from my raft that I will be able to use on it & may end up needing the extensions mentioned.

  I got a pair of extensions, you can row me, while you are testing the extensions out