Detlef Arthur Duecker, and his wife, Elisabeth, make a unique sight rowing his Dias-designed Harrier, FALCONE de PALÙ, on Lake Klopein, in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Detlef equipped the boat with Venetian oars and oarlocks made by an Italian master builder. The Harrier was designed for lapstrake construction, but Detlef chose to strip-build his. He'd become familiar with the latter method while building the canoe seen here, suspended directly above him.
Dr.Marie Duecker
Elisabeth Duecker
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I met Arthur at Velaraid 2016 in Venice. Nice boatbuilding, greetings to Arthur and Elisabeth
(Editor’s note: Detlef’s sailing companions in Italy and on the Adriatic coast know him by his middle name, Arturo.)
Several years ago, I had some work trips that took me to the nearby Veneto region and I managed to visit Venice while I was there.
A colleague from that area rows in the Venice lagoon in the stand-up forward-facing style he learned from an 80-year lagoon boatman. Apparently not so many practice this any more so it is good to see some other people also keeping it alive.
In Venice, I too was impressed by the complexity of shapes of the forcolé.
It would be great if we could see a brief video of the two of them rowing their lovely boat in the Venetian style.
Beautiful work on this boat. I was inspired by Venetian and Vietnamese craft to build much simpler extended oarlocks for standing rowing on my Welsford Walkabout. This boat already had an open center with flat sole and removable sliding seat, so just adding the long locks at the forward of three lock locations was all that was needed. My 9′ 6″ oars work, but are improved by adding 8″ extensions as standing grips.
Compared to seated slide rowing I am not able to generate as much power standing, but the advantage of seeing forward and the ability to take a break and change the muscles used has been welcome on long trips.
There are some photos at Stand Up Rowing in my Flickr album.
How high are extensions for stand up rowing?
LOA? Beam?
The length is 17′ and the beam is 5′ 4″. You can get more information on designer Antonio Dias’ Harrier page.
Editor