A novel oar reversing arrangement including a handle portion, a paddle portion, an oar reversing device connecting said portions and including a pair of gears which are in a different plane from the movement of the portion. The pair of gears are essentially enclosed to prevent contact thereof by exterior objects. A novel oar lock assembly having an oar reversing arrangement, a channel member adapted to be snuggly and slidably received on a length of a gunwale of a boat, an attachment device rigidly attached to the underside of said oar reversing arrangement and a complementary device rigidly attached to the top of said channel member whereby the devices may be interlocked by the relative rotation of the oar reversing arrangement around an axis represented by the length of the channel member so that the devices may be separated when the oar reversing arrangement is rotated to the side of the channel member, but the devices are interlocked when the oar reversing arrangement is rotated to a position above the channel member.
A reverse boat oar is provided and consists of a mechanism for holding a large gear portion on a distal end of an oar handle arm and a small gear portion formed on a distal end of an oar paddle arm in a meshing rotatable relationship. An oar lock attaches the holding mechanism to a gunwale of a boat, so that when a rower pushes forward on the oar handle arm the oar paddle arm will also go forward. The rower can sit facing the bow of the boat to see where the boat is going.
The watercraft has an elongated hollow hull having a pair of integral outwardly and upwardly projecting outrigger wings, onto which are mounted oar mounting devices each having a flat casing attached to rods protruding out of the outrigger wings. The attachment of the casing to the rods is accomplished with sockets installed on the rods, which have spherical housings engaged by ball joint portions provided on the casing, to form a ball and socket joint. The sockets are longitudinally spaced-apart on the hull side edge portion, so as to allow the casing to swivel about an axis parallel to the watercraft longitudinal axis. The casing is engaged by a pair of oar members pivoted therein in the plane of the flat casing. A pair of wires interconnect the pivoted oar members inside the casing, to allow pivotal displacement of the oar members only in opposite directions. The rods which protrude out of the outrigger wings are the ends of attachment rods crossing through the hull transversely, thus allowing a secure attachment of the oars onto the watercraft.
A front-facing rowing arrangement for a boat includes a pair of oars of which includes a handle 1 and a blade 3 mounted for pivotal movement about spaced parallel axes on a supporting member 5 which is itself hingedly mounted for movement about a horizontal axis extending parallel to the direction of travel of the boat. The handle 1 and blade 3 of each oar are connected by a lever/linkage system which is such that the angular velocity of the blade relative to the angular velocity of the handle increases steadily throughout a typical power stroke.
A rowing apparatus is provided for connection to a vessel and includes an oar direction-of-motion reversal assembly, fulcrum stabilizing means connected to the oar direction-of-motion reversal assembly, and vessel-to-oar-apparatus connection means connected to the fulcrum stabilizing means for connecting the apparatus to the vessel. Preferably, the oar direction-of-motion reversal assembly includes an oar handle portion, an oar blade portion, and a casement assembly for supporting the oar handle portion and the oar blade portion. A pair of oar direction-of-motion reversal assemblies are provided which provide a pair of oar handle portions and a pair of oar blade portions. The apparatus provides that a rower faces in the direction that the vessel is propelled when the rower pulls on the oar handle portions.
Apparatus for propelling a boat in the direction in which the oarsman is facing using oars which are connnected to a support (80) at their innermost ends (18) so that they are movable rotatably in a horizontal plane, rotatably in a vertical plane and linearly up and down, and which are suspended above the water by a downward force from a compression spring (66) applied at a point inboard of a fulcrum (74) which is attached to the oar connection joint clevis (46) and which is supported by a horizontal bearing surface (72) on which the fulcrum (74) slides as the oar is moved.
