Durham Boats
Durham Boat Company, Inc. continues to provide
the highest quality boats and accessories from around the world. For
the past 16 years we have been building a core competency in the area
of carbon prepreg manufacturing. Durham Boat Company has made its mark,
as the manufacturer of the premium Dreher oars and sculls.
Durham Boat Company, Inc. was formed in 1981 to supply high performance,
high quality rowing and sculling equipment and related sculling instruction
for easy entry into the sport of rowing. The original Durham Boat was
a large wooden boat produced by the Durham Boat Company of Durham, Pennsylvania.
They were designed by company owner Robert Durham to navigate the Delaware
River.
The Durham Boat were flat-bottomed
boats with high vertical side which ran parallel to each other up to
a point 12 to 14 feet from the boat's ends, where they then tapered.
The boats were constructed of 1.25 inch thick planks and measured 60
feet long by 8 feet wide by 42 inches deep. They displaced a draft of
3.5 inches when light and 28 inches when fully loaded.
Durham Boats were designed
to be able to carry a maximum load of 17 tons while traveling downstream
and two tons while traveling upstream. Thus they could carry 150 barrels
of flour or 600 bushels of corn. It took three men to operate the boats.
Moving downstream they used 12 foot to 18 foot long "setting poles"
mainly for steering and when moving upstream they used these poles to
push the boats upriver.
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