Couldn't buy a hard dink small enough to stow on my foredeck, so built a little 6' stitch and glue. Another story for another thread.
Running 7'
Crooked Creek oars from Wally World of all places.
New Zealand Pine with grips for 29 bucks ea. Real "war clubs" when you get 'em, but an hour or so with the belt sander and some #60 grit will skin several pounds off them and improve the balance. Oval shaped the shafts, and reduced the blade edge down to around 1/4" leaving the center of the blade about the same. Big improvement. 2 coats of Raku
epoxy soaked into the raw
wood, then a coat or three of
varnish.
Made a home brew serving mallet from and old meat tenderizer and wrapped the shafts (at the oarlock) with 1/4" twisted nylon from the local big box store. Installed closed ring
bronze oar locks and added leathers top and bottom to capture the locks (they don't float) Materials for the leathers came from the local thrift store in the form of a couple of 1-1/2" wide belts. Leathers secured with filled Raku
epoxy.
Total cost around $75 not including locks. Have been using them most every day for the last 2 years and 1500 miles. Only problems were the leathers on one oar started to come loose a few weeks ago. 30 min
repair.
Time for some new
varnish, but I got "keys disease".
Other than that, they have been a good choice for me.
Cheap, durable and available. Pics of the dink, and the serving mallet attached. If anyone wants additional info, PM me or post and I will start another thread. Sorry, no pics of the oars handy, but can post on request.
Mallet
photo is of a test wrap on a piece of pine dowel Actually built 2 dinks, a 6' for the Solitaire and a 7-6
for sale (Only one more sheet of ply) Mermaid
photo is of 7-6 dink which brought enough to pay for both dinks and oars.