Arts & Entertainment Community

BoatShop volunteers bring pre-20th century oars into the present

Posted on August 26th, 2025 By: Carolyn Bick

Tom Regan laughs and gestures at two men planing lengths of Sitka spruce, as subtly fragrant, slightly oily curls of wood fall to the floor of the Gig Harbor BoatShop.

“These guys,” he says, “are happiest when they’re ankle-deep in shavings.”

Those long, silken-grained pieces of wood will eventually become sleek, lightweight spoon blade oars, made much the way they were just before the turn of the 20th century. This Saturday morning, as every Saturday morning, a handful of volunteers in the boat shop’s Community Boat Restoration Program are restoring boats and learning to use different boat-making tools. None of those tools are machine-powered. The shop is quiet, save for the sound of manual tools, and some talk among the volunteers.

Dennis Hand works on a spoon blade oar at the Gig Harbor BoatShop on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

Spoon blade oars

Though the group works on a variety of projects, spoon blade oars are among the more specialized. These oars are fashioned just the way the name sounds: both their shape and blade are concave.

Regan, the restoration group’s instructor, started making spoon blade oars more than 20 years ago, around the time he opened his own boat-building business, Grapeview Point Boat Works. Though Regan closed the boat-building portion of the business a few years ago, he still makes these oars, because he feels it’s important to carry on the art. That’s why he’s incorporated it into the restoration program.

In his own work, Regan said, he tends to gravitate towards traditional models of boats. The spoon blade oars Regan and the volunteers make are no exception. Regan estimated that he has created about 250 pairs of spoon blade oars since embarking on their creation all those years ago.

Both spoon blade oars and flat blade oars rest in a rack at the Gig Harbor BoatShop, as seen here on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

The shape of a spoon blade oar helps improve balance and makes the blade less buoyant. The rower doesn’t have to exert as much energy getting the blade into the water, and then keeping it under the water. They are lighter and easier to maneuver than traditional flat blade oars, which tend to be heavy and cumbersome.

Motors killed the oar-building star

“The best small-boat pleasure oars really happened in the 1890s, before outboard motors came around,” Regan explained. “That’s when fishing guides and hunters just needed really good oars they could row for extended periods of time.”

When outboard motors came aboard, so to speak, the quality of oars meant for small pleasure boats went downhill, Regan said. “You basically hoped you would never have to use ’em.”

Tom Regan, center, teaches Joshua Beard, left, how to make a spoon blade oar at the Gig Harbor BoatShop on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

So, Regan decided to figure out how to make a good quality spoon blade oar. Since even historical spoon blade oars had their drawbacks, Regan opted to add a contemporary twist to finesse their ease of use.

“What I did was, I took sales catalogues from the 1880s, 1890s, and looked at what was being sold then, and then made a couple changes,” Regan said. “They typically used formed copper tips on the oars to keep the tip protected from damage, and there’s some downsides to that. It puts weight right where you don’t want it — the rivets they put to attach the copper tend to just split the oar blade.”

Sitka spruce

Regan also used different wood than was historically recorded to make the oars — but the use of immediately available wood conforms to historical practice. Craftspeople in the late 1800s would have used the wood available to them.

Tom Regan, left, and Joshua Beard, right, work on two spoon blade oars at the Gig Harbor BoatShop on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

Here in the Pacific Northwest, that happens to be Sitka spruce, which Regan said is an excellent wood, because it’s the stiffest wood for its weight. He also said that they create the oars with the grain oriented vertically, rather than flat, so that the wood is less inclined to warp.

Still, other oar-making techniques remain as they were, because they stand the test of time.

“The best oars back then had lead counterweights inside the grips to balance the oar, so you don’t spend as much effort getting the blade out of the water,” Regan said. “The oar leathers are sewn on in the traditional manner, so there’s no tax, or weakening the oar.”

Dave Schultz works on a spoon blade oar at the Gig Harbor BoatShop on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

BoatShop collaboration

Making these oars is not the privilege of a skilled few. That day, at least two volunteers were making the oars for the first time, as their more seasoned companions worked alongside them on the very same oars.

For his part, Regan said that he is “very happy” that the BoatShop has provided him the space to teach making spoon blade oars, and has provided the wood to do so.

“It’s a little bit of my legacy, and I’m just very happy to see it carried on,” he said.

Sitka Spruce shavings lie at Dennis Hand’s feet, as he works on a spoon blade oar at the Gig Harbor BoatShop on Aug. 23, 2025. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick