Drift boat care (oars and gluv-it)

[Gus Orviston]

I have seen mention that wooden oars need some care. I have checked sawyers website and Alumaweld and saw nothing that supports that thought..

What do you all do with wood oars except put them away?

I have a Gluv-it question as well. Do the manufacturers put a decent coat on the bottom when it comes from the factory. My experience with bearings and the like manufacturers do the minimum, And after banging a few rocks I see scratches down to the aluminum....So is that pretty normal, does Alumaweld put enough gluv-it on from the get go.

thanks, gus

[Gus Orviston]

Mark and the dog,what type of finish is good to use on the sawyers, just a deck oil? what do you use?

gus

[cully]

My name is not mark and I don't have a dog but I do have sawyers wood smoker oars. I use an outdoor varnish purchased at bI-mart. It ran about 30 bucks for a gallon. Just lightly sand your oars then wipe sanding dust off with a clean rag then apply a light coat of varnish. You can coat with another coat or two but make sure varnish is completly dry, lighly sand and wipe off dust before each coat. You can buy more expensive varnish's but the bimart product works well enough for me. I even use everywhere else on my unpainted but varnished boat. The boat is never been in the water for more than a straight 3 day period and the varnish has held up great. I will need to redo the boat again soon but it will be another 2 years before I'll need to do it again. That depends on how much i get the boat out. The oars and floorboards of the boat need it more often. For me two or 3 times a year. I hope that helps

[ 02-22-2003, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: cully ]

[Gus Orviston]

Cully thanks,,, didn't know if anybody else was paying attention. :smile: Mark's typing dog ususally responds pretty fast...I guess you win the doggy biscuit.

My oars are still new, but the scratches are coming, so I want to be ready and take care of it as needed. ...at the end of the season...if it ever ends :grin:

thanks, gus

[Grantspastor]

I agree..not much care needed. I've used wooden oars for a long long time. Just need occasional varnish or paint

[Flatfish]

Willie put plenty on mine from the get go. But a gallon every couple years does 2 things.

1- It keeps the bottom slick. Which is good.

2-It dumps out the 28 dozen loose swivels and corkies floating around in the recesses of your floorboards. This keeps you from spending huge amounts of dough on corkies and lets you spend it on kwikfish amd tuf line instead. Which is good.

You will actually see a noticeable improvement in the boats tracking after dumping 58 pounds of swivels from her port side.

If you do not keep the finish on your wood oars water will seep in and you will be buying new oars much too soon. Which cuts into the corkie, swivel, tuf line fund. That is not good.

Call Sawyer and ask the customer service folks what they suggest. If they tell you that they are maintence free, mention the Cataract product.

Mark and the dog.

[ 02-22-2003, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: Flatfish ]

[Flatfish]

Sorry for the reaction time Gus, but the dogs reflexes are slow since duck season has ended. No more Jedi duck dog reaction time til next fall.

Oh yeah, what they said. I used to do the glop and slop every summer along with the gluvit. I did an awful job on both, but the fish didn't care.

Mark and the dog who would still accept a biscuit in the mail.