Erden is still going strong

our friend Erden is still killing it on his attempt to circumnavigate the globe via man power.
check his latest post from his website. and check his tracker.



October 18, 2010 (Day 98)
I was having trouble with my modem connection by satellite phone. It kept dropping, making emails and dispatches impossible. It remains unreliable, I may have partially fixed it, time will tell.

I now have a spare oar, ready for use. When I found the epoxy, I started the work to assemble it. While I was on para-anchor waiting in the cabin a while back, I began to prepare the shorter handle side of the broken oar.

With the shaft diameter being the largest at the handle and tapering down toward the blade, I had to slide the also tapered 70 cm long plug, which I had already cut from a different shaft, down from the end toward the break. I had wrapped electrical tape at the end of the plug both as an even spacer for centering the plug and as a gasket to contain the epoxy that I was to pour. When jammed in place, the plug extruded about 40 cm past the break, leaving about 30 cm inside. I placed four little rolls I had prepared evenly around the plug to center it at the break as well, then once I fashioned a little paper cone taped in place to serve as a funnel, I was ready to pour epoxy in the 3-4 mm gap between the plug and the shaft.

I stood the oar shaft on its end then tied it to the corner of my footwell. Its total length with the plug was about 1.5 meters. I mixed two parts by volume of epoxy with one part hardener in a plastic cup which I had sacrificed for the cause. The wind was down to 15-20 knots but still too strong for the job at hand. At 25 knots, the darn wind blew food off my spoon! At 15, it wanted to blow the epoxy past my funnel. I managed to get most of the epoxy where it was intended; the gap filled with epoxy up to 2 cm from the break. I let the shaft rest overnight for the glue to set. In 24-hours, it would be rock hard.

Before gluing the blade end of the broken oar, some preparation was necessary. I had to make sure that the blade would have a "zero pitch angle" meaning that when the oar was placed in the oarlock, the blade would go in and out of the water vertically. This is unlike racing shells where a small pitch angle is introduced to the blade. This feature literally lifts the racing shell in the water to counter the upward and backward momentum of the rower when all the strength of the legs are applied to pull on the oars once the blade enters the water -- that moment is called "the catch."

So I lined up the blade and marked the correct angle with some tape on either side of the break which I would match later. I wrapped electrical tape again at the tip of the plug before I inserted it into the remaining blade side shaft. When the plug jammed, the separation at the break was about 4 cm to account for the jagged carbon fiber shaft ends that I had cut using a hacksaw; therefore the total length of the oar shaft remained about the same. Because of different shaft tapers from separate oar manufacturers, the gap to fill with epoxy was much tighter in this section of the oar. I centered the plug by setting four tiny wedges around it that I had cut by sacrificing two laundry clips.

Pouring epoxy in that gap was a battle. When I stood the oar on its blade, the break stood at about 2.4 meters. That was at my chin level when I stood high astride the footwell. Any side to side movement from the rolling motion of the boat was amplified up there, so lining up the epoxy cup with the funnel was tough. The job required two hands, but I also felt insecure wanting to hold on. The cabintop was level with my hips; I had to keep pumping my knees to counter the bucking boat. And IF I lined up the funnel, the wind blew half of the epoxy glue away splattering it all over. A lot of grunting and cussing later I managed to get some glue in place, then quickly sacrificed a towel to wipe down. That glue as well had to set over the following 24-hours.

With the plug firmly positioned, I could now continue the work by laying the oar on the deck. I wrapped plastic sheet tightly across the 4 cm separation to act as a mold. The sheet was cut from a ziploc bag; epoxy does not stick to such plastics. I taped the sheet in place then placed a new paper funnel on the top side of the separation. When I poured epoxy, it propagated down into the shaft horizontally. I helped it flow by tapping the shaft with the handle of a heavy diving knife. Soon the entire space around the plug including the 4 cm separation at the break was filled with epoxy. This too had to wait another 24 hours.

Next, I wanted to make the best use of my remaining epoxy. I wished I hadn't wasted so much while pouring in the wind, oh well... I cut four 20 cm sections of 4-inch medium weight fiberglass tape. I wet two of those with epoxy and placed them lengthwise across the separation which had by now been filled evenly with the outside shaft surface. The two four inch width tapes were wide enough to overlap about 1 cm on their edges. I used another plastic sheet to wrap over the fiberglass then gently massaged through it to remove any significant air bubbles underneath. Another 24 hours passed before I laid another two sheets of fiberglass tape. These layers of tape would act like a splint on the outside of the shaft, and prevent any tendency of the carbon fiber shaft edges at the junction to splinter.

Another 24 hours and I was done. All I had to do was to reattach the handle. When the excess glue dried completely, I was able to peel it out of my plastic cup as well. It was a nice bonus to recover my cup.

My oar is probably stronger now, and certainly heavier. It sure displays better back on my starboard rack than in pieces for weeks on my deck.

Erden.