How do you Store your Oars? - Part I - Space Saver Rowing Systems

How do you Store your Oars? – Part I

Although we are totally biased with regard to who has the best rowing storage solutions, we wanted to know how other clubs manage their boathouse oar storage. Aside from such a diverse range of methods, we discovered some particularly innovative solutions from within our community.

We prefer to store our oars vertically. You can fit a larger number neatly into a smaller space, which frees up more room in your boathouse for other equipment and they are easy to retrieve when needed. But what do you do if you do not have the necessary roof space to stack your oars vertically? Below we showcase some of the more interesting storage solutions that you can apply if you too, lack sufficient roof height in your boathouse.

Part I – Horizontal Racking Solutions

Mobile Adapted Boat Rack

We would like to begin with a nifty application of an old mobile sculling boat rack by Sandy Bay Rowing Club in Tasmania, Australia. The rack has been taken over by horizontally arranged sweep oars, which would not fit vertically inside the boathouse. A simple solution to a problem many of the smaller boathouses likely encounter. If you lack the necessary roof space to stack your sweep oars vertically, this is a very effective way to stash them away. And the best part? You can wheel them outside into the open when you need to use them!

Wall-Mounted Horizontal Rack

Next we have a standard horizontal wall-mounted oar rack. As you can see, it is positioned above the rowing shell which utilizes some of the free space in the boat house. However due to this placement, reaching oars stored at the back of the shelves would be quite a challenge and likely more of a hassle than it needs to be.

Scaffold Racking

Another example of horizontal oar racks has been submitted to us by a member of the
Rowperfect community, Stefan. Stefan’s club has opted for the minimalist scaffold arrangement, wrapped in foam for added protection to their oars. Simple and effective, there is enough space to fit the sweep oars in without too much hassle, and enough clearance between the different shelves – should they need to retrieve a sneaky oar from the back of the pile!

Do you use horizontal oar storage in your rowing club? Do you do anything differently? We would love to hear about it!

Read Part II here – Vertical Racking Solutions