Sculling - a lost art?
I taught myself to scull when I was nine or ten years old. The only trouble was, I did it the wrong way.
I put my oar in the sculling notch in the dinghy’s transom and held it like a rudder, with the blade vertical. From that starting position, it was easy to see which way to twist the blade so that it scooped water backwards like a propeller - but it meant that my wrists were doing the work, and I had to twist them a lot to obtain a shallow enough angle to get the dinghy moving from a standing start.
It was afternoon when I invented my sculling technique, so it was only a few hours before a friendly adult arrived after leaving his office, and showed me the proper way. Here it is.
While you’re learning, it’s easier to sit on a thwart, face aft, and use both hands - partly because you can see which way you’re twisting the oar.
- Lay the oar in the sculling notch with its blade horizontal.
- Hold it with both hands, elbows down and a little further apart than the width of your body.
- Set the backs of your hands outwards, in line with your forearms, so that you can easily bend your wrists both ways.
- Leave your wrists floppy. Since they are below the oar, each time you drive the oar from side to side the pushing arm will twist the blade the right way.
Try a few gentle strokes. It’s easier to start with the oar on one side or the other than in the middle.
- Oar handle to the right (port, since you’re facing aft), now push it to starboard with your right hand.
- Your right wrist swings under the oar, twisting the left-hand (starboard) side of the blade upwards. For now, just relax your left wrist and let it be led.
- Swing the oar handle right across to starboard, then reverse the movement by pushing to port with your left hand, keeping both wrists floppy.
- Your left wrist swings under the oar, twisting the right-hand (port) side of the blade upwards. For now, just relax your right wrist and let it be led.
- Repeat.
You’ll almost certainly go round in circles. Keep practising, adjusting the side force on each stroke to even out the swings. Every now and then, you’ll probably need to lift the oar out of the water to take an extra bite on one side or the other to straighten up.
Once you’ve developed a feel for making the boat go straight, you can increase the power by using the pulling hand as well - but let the pushing hand, hanging below the oar, control the angle.
With a bit more practice, you’ll be able to sit on one side of the boat and scull with one hand while you work your way around the trots or the marina pontoons or up narrow creeks. No smelly, buzzing outboard - and no frantic shipping of oars and rowlocks when you come alongside. Bliss.
