(wikimedia Commons)Sharpie-style boats are surprisingly easy to row, but if the oars are to clear their coamings, special considerations are required for the mounting of oarlocks.
Sharpie-style skiffs are often a surprise to people rowing them for first time. Initially, they have the appearance of clunky, flat-bottomed city-park-pond rental boats that have the efficiency and rowing qualities of a shipping crate for a washing machine. But when the eye lingers a bit longer, one begins to perceive their practicality and elegance. They are long and lean; their transoms are high up out of the water, which eliminates drag; and they usually have a deck and coamings that not only add a note of nautical savoir faire but also stiffen the hull and keep the occupants dry. Raised oarlock pads are necessary for the locks and oars to clear the coamings.
I have long admired these blue-collar craft and their nimbleness in shallow waters. Their performance is quite sporty, and it had to be: they are first cousins of sailing oyster-tonging working craft that people depended on to make a
living. When researching the design, I noticed on construction plans and period photographs that large working craft had oars and oarlocks, just as their diminutive offspring did. Clearly this was not the crowd to languish in the bay with a cocktail waiting for the breeze to return, and breaking out a smartphone to call for a tow was not an option.
There are three options for getting oarlocks up and over the top edge of coamings to allow the use of oars while seated: (1) a traditional on-the-deck raised pad, which allows oarlock placement farther out from the centerline of the hull (these present a tripping hazard and possible gear snag; (2) a purchased pair of specialty tall “standing” oarlock horns paired with oarlock sockets ruggedly set into the deck (these specialty items are pricey and hard to find in a pinch; Duck Trap Woodworking sells a very handsome set; (3) a deck-and-coaming mounted raised pad that accepts standard oarlock horns. On a recent project of mine, the third option seemed the best: one that’s rugged and unobtrusive and would offer reinforcement to the coamings.
Locate the rowing station
Sharpie-style boats are surprisingly easy to row, but if the oars are to clear their coamings, special considerations are required for the mounting of oarlocks. One solution is to fit raised oarlock pads.
Begin by selecting the location of your rowing station. In this case, it is relative to the centerboard trunk, which made a good place to perch while rowing. Then determine the oarlock location; the precise position will be geometrically nailed down just before final installation.
Design a pattern and scribe the coaming curve
For the template, I used a modified half-oval shape that would be sleek and allow water and lines to pass easily without catching. The wood choices include laminated mahogany, white oak, locust—whatever durable, rot-resistant wood that will match the coaming. Make it oversized, because there is some interesting beveling and fitting to be done, and the extra stock will allow you to sneak up on the finished product. It is worth practicing on inexpensive stock such as pine or basswood.
Scribe the curvature of the coaming onto the pad stock to provide a cut line for the inner face of the block. Because your rough stock will likely be taller than the coaming, clamp a piece of ¼″ plywood to the coaming to extend its curve upward. Scribe the shape onto the stock with a pencil and saw this curve into the block. To help get a tight fit, rub a bit of line chalk onto the coaming and press and slide the curve of the sawn block against it. The chalk will mark the high points of the curve. Remove those imperfections with a spokeshave and repeat the process until the entirety of the curve has a uniform chalked appearance.
Place the pattern atop the pad stock and trace the oval shape onto the wood—but don’t cut it yet. (This pattern can be used for the opposite side of the boat by flipping it over to create a mirror-image.)
Drill for the socket
To determine the location of the long bore for the shaft of the oarlock socket, stand the socket at its location and trace the circumference of the socket. It will likely be approximately ¾″ in diameter. Using a tri-square on the top face, draw a line through the center of the circular socket hole.
Square this line down both sides of the stock and connect them across the bottom. Register the distance of the center of the socket hole from the edge of the stock on the top face onto the bottom face.
Boring the through-hole for the oarlock socket
This might seem out of order, but with the block still mostly rectangular, it is much easier to clamp or hold in a vise. While the bore can be accomplished by using a drill press, the job can also be done by eye using a sighting stick, which I’ve dubbed the “sight-o-matic.”
The sight-o-matic is simply a piece of rectangular stock, notched to be more or less L-shaped. As the drawing shows, the short leg of the notch is aligned with the line drawn on the side of the oarlock pad stock, and the guide is clamped to the stock. The lower corner of the gauge that aligns with the drawn line is set back from the center of the yet-to-be-drilled hole by half the thickness of the bit you’ll be using.
Using the device is easy; it requires just a couple of clamps, a piece of masking tape, a long well-sharpened drill bit, and a good eye. The guide helps align the drill bit along the X and Y axes so that, if you drill half the depth from each side, the holes will meet in the middle.
Place the stock into a vise. Use a punch or a nail to put a starter divot in the center of your drawn oarlock socket hole, top and bottom. Align and clamp the sight-o-matic as described above. Put a long bit (¼″ diameter works fine) into your drill. Wrap a piece of masking tape around the bit to indicate half the depth of the stock to be drilled. Place the tip of the bit into the divot, and sighting along the gauge adjust the bit angle until it aligns with the corner of the gauge. Slowly bore the first hole, occasionally backing out to clear any chips. Continue inward until you reach the half-way tape. Unclamp the gauge and set it up on the other side and bore another hole to meet up with your first effort. Chase through the entire hole to clean out the bore. The sight-o-matic’s job is now done. With the pilot hole thus established, you can either incrementally chase through with ever-increasing diameter bits or simply use a ¾″ flat “speed bore” bit to come in from both top and bottom faces, using the pilot hole to keep the cutter on track.
Cutting the pad’s shape
With the hole bored, it is time to saw the oval shape. Set the bandsaw to 90 degrees and carefully saw the shape (leaving the line) that was drawn from the pattern. Smooth with hand tools or a sander.
Beveling the bottom
With the pad’s shape cut and tuned, it’s time to deal with the angle of the deck’s camber relative to the coaming. This is where the extra height of the block comes into play, because the pad will become shorter in the process of cutting that bevel on the bottom.
Use a bevel gauge to capture the angle from the deck to set the table of the bandsaw in preparation for sawing. This can be the most fraught part of the process, because even though it’s a straightforward operation, it’s also one of those quick “I’ve got this” details; it’s easy to cut the angle in the wrong direction in that moment of enthusiasm. This is where that trial stock comes in handy, just to make sure. To cut the marked bevel, the pad is set with its coaming side down on the bandsaw table and on the outside of the blade, rather than in the saw’s throat. Clamp a board to the table to act as a fence. Position it so that when the cut is finished, the entire deck-side of the pad will be cut.
Check the pad’s fit on the boat. Fine-tune the fit by taping sandpaper to the deck and working the pad back and forth along the sandpaper.
Trim the top
After fitting the pad to the deck, place it next to the coaming to trace the top curve of the coaming onto the still-tall stock. Saw or plane off the excess. The oarlock socket can now be fitted to the top of the pad and its screw holes drilled. To prevent the bored hole pad becoming a water trap after being affixed to the deck, use a rat-tail file to cut a U-shaped limber channel into its bottom face between the hole and the outboard face. Sand and varnish all surfaces to taste.
Installation
Now it’s time to formalize the location of the finished pads. Go back to your original location selection, set the pads in place, and clamp them to the coaming. Use measuring tapes from both oarlock sockets to a central location, such as the center of the stemhead. Move the pads back and forth until both tapes measure the same, and you are there! Scribe the location on the deck with a pencil.
Check under the deck for deckbeams and other impediments and, after applying a non-adhesive bedding compound, fasten the pads through the coaming and up through the deck.
Then get out the sweeps and take the boat out for a spin. 
Greg Rössel is a contributing editor for WoodenBoat.