• Happy International Mermaid Day! 🧜🏼‍♀️

Poling lessons in Venice

Joined
Mar 16, 2017
Messages
219
Reaction score
121
Hey did you know Venetian gondolas are rowed, not poled? They are powered by a single oar. Where did we all get the same wrong notion? I blame Saturday morning cartoons. Anyway, looks like fun. I shall take a lesson next week.
 
There used to be boats sculled like that in the Buffalo harbor. Boys ran them and ferried people out to ships or across. I have seen pictures, but no boats have survived.
 
Sculling oars or yuloh are pretty sweet way to propel a craft. https://www.simplicityboats.com/yulohpage.html
It is amazing the size of craft that can be effectively propelled with a yuloh. Where you taking a lesson? That sounds fun. I loved to hear how the lesson goes and what ya think.

Not exactly sure where, but in Venice for sure. I expect it will be way lame, geared for old tourists who have never held an oar or a paddle. But you never know, definitely worth trying.
 
Gondolas are rowed with a specialized oar, not poled with a pole. The canals are too deep for poling. The history is interesting. 500 years ago, there were approximately 10,000 gondolas plying the waterways of Venice. Rowing from only one side became necessary, because, with all the gondola traffic, there wasn't room to row with oars on both sides!

The amazing thing, at least to me, is how long it took them to figure out to build asymmetrical Gondolas. They didn't start doing that until the late 1800s. The hulls are actually curved so they will turn right. Rowing on the right tends to turn the boat left, so modern gondolas compensate for that with a curved hull to bring it back to the right.

Gondolas have been standardized for a long time. I believe there are laws that regulate their size and appearance. Maybe the existence of such laws is what held back development of the asymmetric hull. Eight different kinds of wood are used in the construction. The ferro, the metal thing on the front, has a practical purpose: Venice is prone to high water events, and the ferro lets the Gondolier know if the water is too high for the gondola to get under bridges--if the ferro doesn't fit under, find another route.

Have fun in Venice!
 
Not exactly sure where, but in Venice for sure. I expect it will be way lame, geared for old tourists who have never held an oar or a paddle. But you never know, definitely worth trying.

Sounds cool and definitely worth a try. I visited Venice almost 30 years ago and wished I had a canoe to explore.
 
The "oar lock" they use is called a forcale.

While in Venice we took a morning and visited the shop where the craftsmen carved these beautiful pieces of wood. If you visit the gallery you'll see quite a few variations of the forcale.

https://www.forcole.com/eng-catalogue.html

I missed this place. Wow that is pretty cool. If by chance I ever get back I will check this out.
 
Note to self: research canoe rentals.
 

Attachments

  • photo11837.jpg
    photo11837.jpg
    265.5 KB · Views: 0
Back
Top