Editors note:I have included this series of articles in the HOWTO section. If you read carefully and inspire yourself from the photos you can make a sculling oar. This is not the traditional Japanese sculling oar but a derived modern version with better performance called the Ve-scull. The designer of the Ve-scull, Doi Atsushi, has applied for patents world wide but allows individuals or schools to make an oar for their own personal use and experimentation. If you do make an oar, let him know, let us know - we would love to publish photos and comments here. I used automatic translation software to translate these articles. It has been a tough but rewarding experience! There are still lots of links to pages in Japanese but on those pages the photos speak for themselves. Google and excite have translation software if you wish to try your hand at visiting sites in Japan all by yourselves. kiwi

Welcome to the Ve-scull page

The Ve-scull is a laminar flow sculling oar

In these pages you will find all collected information on the topic of the Ve-scull (also includes the I-scull or wide area laminar flow sculling oar).

So far on the " GL laboratory " site the Ve-scull was presented in drawings and still photos, but many of the comments that we received were that it is difficult to understand. This revised version includes Quicktime movies of the oar in action. The size of the movies is about 4 megabytes, there may be times when you cannot view them due to server overload.

Please use the free Apple QuickTime viewer to view the movies:

1) First please view the difference of movement between the traditional oar and the Ve-scull in the movies.

When you see the scenes played back in loop mode you can observe that the residual wave made by the turning of the blade is very large with the traditional oar. This tendency increases when the speed of the boat increases, making high speed with the traditional oar difficult. With the Ve-scull this kind of parasite drag does not occur.

With the camera on the blade of the oar, you can observe the water flow around the oar without being disturbed by the movement of the oar in the shot (WARNING: seasickness is possible if you watch for too long...).

Motion of the traditional oar: Watch

The flow around the traditional oar: Watch

For reference...The paddle oar

Motion of the Ve-scull: Watch

The flow around the Ve-scull: Watch

The flow around the Ve-scull from the side: Watch

Watching the traditional oar and the Ve-scull simultaneously makes it easier to understand the difference. However, there are times when it is difficult to open the two together depending upon the software.

2)		The principle of the Ve-scull
3)		The I-scull which is superior
4)		There is an unexpected feature which the designer did not intend in the Ve-scull! ...very, very easy to row. if you have watched this movie you will understand. The monkey video is not yet available, it is due to be shown on Japanese TV in February.
5)		Let's build a Ve-scull. It is easy to make it oneself. The Ve-scull is patent protected - it is possible however to build one for personal use or in an educational context (school project for example). Companies please contact us for a commercial licence.
6)		" GL laboratory " Ve-sculll team, in the human powered boat race
7)		Closer study of the traditional oar (admiring the intelligence of our ancestors)
8)		The Ve-scull development process showing all the steps

Translators notes

This translation is the work of Google Japanese to English beta version and Tony Grant with the invaluable help of the original author Doi Atsushi assisted by Koji Matano. The original version of these pages can be found at www.gl-labo.com. Koji Matano works as Timberline Small Craft, he has also translated "Building the Herreshoff Dinghy" into Japanese. Once again thanks to Douglas Brooks for introducing me to the Japanese boat building scene.

Welcome to the Ve-scull page

Table of contents