Posted by Jock on June 02, 2007 at 00:07:57 from 86.143.117.221 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Kerwallop...and candle grease posted by JLabaree on June 01, 2007 at 00:41:42:
With the exception of drift boats (dories used for flyfishing rivers, developed mostly in the American West), I've always considered the pins-through-the-oars set-up to be designed specifically for duffers.
Hmm. Difficult one that.
In the 1930's there were thousands of rowing skiffs on the Thames most of them with flat thole pins - so being able to row must have been a quite common skill for young men. Perhaps this is where the term 'young blade' comes from.
I know much less about the Lake District skiffs, but I have always assumed that their metal-pins-through-the-oars were fitted so that the skiffs could be rowed normally by pulling the oars, but could also be more easily manouvered by fishermen in tricky waters, e.g. Octapus Lagoon, by pushing the oars and facing the direction that they were going.