I have purchased my oars. First I calculated that 8' oars from Barclay Sound, Learher Kit, Oarlocks and Oar Mounts will cost me approximately $230.00/ pair. That would set me $460 for two pairs plus shipping. I e-mailed Pygmy and asked whether I could get a discount. They declined to give me a refund yet told me that I would save on shipping a little bit.

I have also received a catalog from local company. This company was recommended to me by a friend. I called Shaw and Tenney's and spoke to a very knowledgeable person. He had me measure the distance between the oarlocks, the distance between the two seats and concluded that in order to row this boat in tandem without hassles my oars should be a little over 7.5 feet. Their oars were comparable in price yet had spoon blades (Barclay Sound oars did not have that). So I ordered locally. The shipping was $10.00 but I had to pay for Maine sales tax. The whole order was $440.00 for oars, oarlocks, oar inserts and leathers. Barring some problem with the recommended oar lenght I think I made a good decision.

I'm getting excited. I have sanded my gunwales and the breasthook and it looks very nice to my standard. I have also used mahagony wood filer to fill the tiny gaps where the gunwales meet the breasthook and the knees.

I had a lot of hardened 'drip' epoxy under the gunwales from gluing the gunwales, spacers and inwales. This was cabosil thickened epoxy and it is a big time nuissance to sand off. I used these grinding drill bits I bought about a year ago. They are a metal oval 1/2" wide and 1.5" long bits with rough surface that doesn't dull off much. Those were agle to sand off the epoxy very easily. I was able to finish the entire shear line in less than 15 minutes.

I have also bought some 1x2's in the store that I cut up and glued to the underside of the seats. I weigh 230 pounds and frankly don't trust that the seats will hold. The 1x2's have nicely reinforced the seats.