The early oars were made with plywood blades and I had some aircraft standard birch ply – only 1.5 mm thick so doubled it and made the blades. Unfortunately it was in the early days of racing skiffs and we were rather ‘gung – ho’ and went for it – as frankly did everyone else. So we rowed as fast as we could, got to the marks, yelled for water and then played sword fights with the blades – mistake! So there were a few repairs to do. Still do, but we are more sophistaced about it now!! We don’t break oars any more – they malfunction!!
