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Small Boat Forum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share you ideas and experiences. |
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Small Boat Forum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share you ideas and experiences. |
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In Reply to: Forward-Facing Rowing Systems... posted by Thom V on March 13, 2002 at 20:44:12:
Hi,Seeing as I am the builder of the forward facing 'Z' type units, perhaps I can shed some light on it....
I originally was looking for a simple system and stumbled on one of the originals made in the late 1800's. It was very clever but I could not figure out why they made it from cast iron which seemed to be the least likely material to use for any marine device. So I built a similar type device from aluminum and it distorted into the shape of a pretzel in just a few strokes. I found that the original, although very clever, has a serious design flaw that mandated the use of a very hard material to have any reliability. My research also showed that the recommendations for the original was to "keep liberally coated with grease". I have a hard enough time keeping clean even without my boat being covered with grease...
So I took the originl principle and did some cad/cam design work followed by experimental units. We took out the design flaws to the point where it could be used successfully when made from a soft 17,000 p.s.i aluminium. However the long term reliability in open water heavy use was still marginal so I decided to manufacture them exclusively from a high tensile completely non corrosive silicon bronze alloy with a stength of 72,000 psi (almost as hard as cast iron.)
We have been building them for two years and some of our customers have rowed well over a thousand miles with no problem. See the website for testimonials.
I hope my answering this query does not violate the 'no selling' rule, but I cant talk about these without having a measure of pride...
You can find lots of information at the website; Also you can link to it through our main site at www.ghboats.com
Dave Robertson
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Follow Ups
- Re: Forward-Facing Rowing Systems... - GH boats 11:41:27 03/14/02 (0)
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