Anyone ever try hand crank trolling motor

[ruffhunter]

Has anyone ever tried any of these transom mounted, hand crank trolling motors? We got a NO MOTOR (gas/electric) lake in the area. Wondering how well they do. I did see one has a history of breaking. I got a bad back and hip, still paying for the recent trip of rowing. We got Millenium seats mounted on a old Meyer 14ft. However the oars hit my knees and i could not get any rhythm to oaring. Im unable to copy and paste any of them here

Or any use a long kayak paddle with a jon or v boat. Might be enough for working a bank fishing but not main lake crossing. Thinking about a dedicated 1240 jon or 12ft v for this row only lake and several other 400 acre or less lakes with my electric. thanks

 

[maintenanceguy]

Never seen one but...

It takes a certain amount of power to move a boat at whatever speed you want to move it. Whether it's a propeller, oars, paddles, or something else, there is no way to make that power requirement smaller.

I have a lot more power in my back and arms when I'm rowing than when I'm turning a crank. I can't imagine that the result would be satisfactory.

 

[GTS225]

Sounds like they're trying to steer everybody to peddle power.

Roger

 

[ruffhunter]

Sounds like they're trying to steer everybody to peddle power.

Roger

I bet we see more changes to electric only lakes and getting away from gas. Someone said they went to a lake (Indiana or Ohio) and said there was a sign for electric only with "50lbs max thrust". With E propulsions and few others on the market now are impressive. Mercury and Yamaha on coming out with electric outboards too.

 

[CRS]

We had a thing years ago, I do not know what it was called. A single handle similar to a tiller you pushed it back and forth and a large aluminum "rudder" would wave. It actually worked, not as fast as rowing but would push the heavy wide wooden boat along. I just did a search, It's called "fin propulsion"

 

[MN Fisher]

We had a thing years ago, I do not know what it was called. A single handle similar to a tiller you pushed it back and forth and a large aluminum "rudder" would wave. It actually worked, not as fast as rowing but would push the heavy wide wooden boat along. I just did a search, It's called "fin propulsion"

Actually it's called 'stern sculling' - and it's a technique as old as boats.

This guy uses it on his 31' sail-cruiser.
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LDltfO3fI8[/media]

 

[LDUBS]

They use those sculling oars on gondolas in Venice. But you have to sing Volare to make them work right.