• Happy Birthday, Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)! 🔷😇🦵🏻

La Voga Veneta

Joined
Oct 21, 2021
Messages
506
Reaction score
603
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
La Voga Veneta

(This is very much related to canoeing, I promise!)

I first went to Venice in 2022. Of course, for a boat-minded person the city is quite a destination, despite the rampant over-tourism and accompanying problems (never mind that it’s washing away into the sea thanks to motorboat wakes and climate change). Of course I was interested in gondolas, but also uncomfortable with the idea of paying a lot of Euros to sit in a boat and not get to paddle it myself. Then I got wind of some organizations that give lessons in rowing gondolas* as opposed to just sitting there like an impotent baby. Well, where do I sign up? And rowing?

Well, as some of you probably know, but many non-boat people don’t take time to distinguish, gondolas are in fact rowed, not paddled, and not poled (or punted as the Brits might say). Because the canals of Venice are crowded, hectic, deep, and in some places very narrow, with everyone and everything moving by the water, the Venetians developed a style of rowing that allows one maximum visibility: standing up and facing forward. It’s referred to as La Voga Veneta in the local dialect. While rowers in most places face backwards, making good use of the strong back and leg muscles, looking constantly over one’s shoulder to see what’s ahead was not an option according to the Venetians. Standing extends viewing distances and visibility, but also allows you to use your body weight against the oarlock, which turns out to be a fairly efficient means of propulsion. One study claims that a gondolier can propel their 750lb gondola and two passengers at the same pace as a pedestrian, for the same amount of calories.

Conjure in your mind, or web-search, some pics of gondolas and it’s immediately apparent that gondolas have but a single oar on the right side, and as we paddlers all know, that single oar of a gondola will impart a turn to the left if not for other contrivances. *Perhaps here is where I admit that I did not in fact row any gondolas; Venetians actually have many boats for many purposes: fishing; moving cargo; and moving people. I rowed a sandolo, a cargo boat often rowed by two rowers that’s wider, more stable, and cheaper than a gondola. Gondolas have but the one rower, and were originally used like a taxi or limousine for getting people from A to B. Many Venetian boats have multiple rowers, and they alternate which side their oarlock is positioned on from bow to stern. The sandolo I rowed has a front-left rower and a back-right rower. I also saw boats with four rowers, the first and third on the left and the second and last (stern-most) on the right. The stern rower is always on the right in all boats - more on that later.

So how do stern rowers correct for that leftward turn inherent in a forward stroke? Surprise! They use a pitched in-water recovery! While in multi-rower boats, all forward rowers feather and return the oars using an out-of-water recovery like a normal rower, gondoliers and other stern rowers almost always have the oar in the water, much like a solo canoeist doing in-water recoveries. I’ve now had 3 rowing lessons over two trips to Venice. Each time the instructor was very impressed with how quickly I picked up the in-water recovery and pitching the oar blade properly to correct steerage. Of course this is due not to my innate talent but rather many years of practicing such strokes solo in a canoe. It really was amazing how well the skills transferred. That’s not to say I was anywhere near the instructors’ skills or didn’t have a lot to learn. The instructors were masters at effecting forward motion with minimal correction and effort, despite the various challenges that arise in the canals (parked boats, moving boats, low bridges, tight turns, tides, and waves).

An intriguing aspect of gondolas (plural: gondole in Venetian/Italian) is that they are asymmetrical. While wider and flatter boats are often rowed with a bow rower, gondole have quite a bit of rocker and a single rower, so they want to turn. The stems are swept to the right of the longitudinal centerline, which I suppose is like heeling a boat onside when paddling on the right? I wonder if anyone has ever contemplated an asymmetrical solo canoe?

gondola and forcola.jpg
A gondola with asymmetry and forcola visible.

Another unique aspect to Venetian rowing is the oarlock, called a forcola (plural forcole) in the Venetian dialect. These solid pieces of wood are carved by a very few masters, most of them carved individually for each rower’s height and other preferences (rowing clubs and schools have generic ones and use wedges to adjust the height for students). The distinctive shape of the forcola, with a main mouth opening to the upper rear, facilitates the particular oar stroke, with tends to be sort of upward on the forward stroke and then passes through the lower quadrants of a loop on the return. In addition to this main opening, the forcola also has a particularly shaped elbow. As mentioned above, the sometimes-narrow canals require passing boats to decrease the width needed for a fully extended oar. Instead of shipping the oar and losing steerage, the stern rower slips the oar into this elbow in a variety of different ways depending on circumstances, causing the oar shaft to be either more vertical, or extend more to the rear, thus allowing narrow passage between a canal wall on your right and a passing boat on your left. The sculling pitch of the oar is adjusted to different positions and angles depending on circumstances, but the blade is always in the water (and often the right foot is pushing off walls too, but that requires the stern and not the bow to be closest to the wall, so planning and anticipation is key). One instructor said to me that moving an oar to the left side of the boat, as I did to attempt a sculling draw on the left in a moment of panicked near-collision, is the surest way to know someone is a rube from the country instead of a true rower. The instructor also explained to me that putting less force into the forward stroke requires less correction, and thus results in less wasted energy overall – something I’d realized with solo paddling as well. However, the added complications of the oarlock, 12ft oar, and a lot of boat traffic had me forgetting some of the finer points of a pitch stroke. The instructor showed me how he can row at a decent clip with just two fingers – all technique, not power, he said. Too true in canoeing as well, but I didn’t have enough time in the boat to get anywhere near that good.

In terms of modifications and adaptions to canoeing, the forcola occurred to me States-side as I was standing up and paddling my canoe with a pole in a stretch of a swamp too deep to touch bottom. The mechanical advantage of an oarlock is clear, being able to put one’s full standing force against the paddle/oar without having to provide your own pivot point. Could such a thing work? I took my Greenland kayak paddle and a 9ft sculling oar out on the lake in my Morningstar one day to futz around. The kayak paddle fluttered too much when paddled standing up. The oar showed some promise when paddled, so if I ever find some time I might try to rig something akin to a forcola sticking out one side, so I could pole shallow sections and row the deep sections Venetian style. There are particular mechanics to the distances between hands and oarlock, and oarlock and water, and these would be specific to the canoe’s width, the length of the oar, my height, and if I offset the oarlock to the outside of the gunnel. I have no idea if this would work or be worth the trouble, but it’s got me thinking.

If you’re in Venice, check out Venice On Board (dedicated to preserving rowing culture) and Row Venice (also dedicated to preserving rowing culture, and it’s lady-owned and operated). I’ve taken lessons with both groups and both are fantastic. Our instructor from Row Venice had just turned 70 – she was spry, lithe, and an amazingly fast rower standing high on the back of the stern, often on one foot. I can only hope to be that lively when I'm that age.

A couple additional sources below. The YouTube in the second one gives some sense of the various rowing moves achievable with a forcola.

https://veneziaautentica.com/venetian-rowing/

https://craftsmanship.net/sidebar/the-hidden-powers-of-the-forcola/
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that fascinating report! I've thought for a long time that if I ever make it to Venice, I'll do whatever I it takes to get a chance to try my hand at rowing a gondola. Man.....what a perfect job!
 
Way back in Venice history (tenth to thirteenth centuries), they rowed with oars on each side. As the waterways became more crowded, they adopted the one-side approach to rowing, to make it easier for boats to pass in the narrow canals. Yet, the curved hull didn't come along until the sixteenth century. So, for hundreds of years, they rowed on one side with straight hulls. It amazes me that they took so long to figure out curving the hull would make the corrections for them.

In the sixteenth century, it is estimated between 8,000 and 10,000 gondolas were rowing the waters of Venice. Hard to imagine what the traffic must have been like. Or the smell--besides being used for transportation, the canals functioned as the city's sewage system.

During a short visit in 2000, I was disappointed to not fit in a visit to a gondola shop. I'm jealous that you got out rowing during your visit. Nice report.
 
Thanks for that additional historical info, Chip! I'm certainly no expert so I'm glad to have others chime in. I see that there are still a few Venetian solo rowers who use an oar on each side (one can find them on Youtube), but still standing and facing forward.

Yet, the curved hull didn't come along until the sixteenth century. So, for hundreds of years, they rowed on one side with straight hulls. It amazes me that they took so long to figure out curving the hull would make the corrections for them.
But no one's got an asymmetrically curved solo canoe yet, right?

I had hoped to visit a forcola shop and maybe take some pics for a template to attempt to carve one myself (they are very pricey to buy, as they should be given the skill involved), but alas didn't plan far enough ahead and couldn't make it happen.

For anyone interested in Venetian history generally, I found City of Fortune fascinating.
 
But no one's got an asymmetrically curved solo canoe yet, right?
The only asymmetrical solo canoe I've ever seen was in the early 1970s when I was still in the Chicago area, and I was working at a canoe shop there. The guy I worked for was the main organizer for the annual DesPlaines River Marathon, a very well attended race. Participant numbers were cut off at 1000 boats in those days because they couldn't shove more than that down the river and have them finish before dark on the same day. One guy showed up in the competition class with an I think cedar strip boat that he paddled the whole distance (about 26 miles) on one side. I don't emember which side and I only got a fleeting glimpse of the boat. This would have been 1973 at the latest, and I started working there in '71, so not before that. The guy didn't win if I remember right, no longer remember his name if I ever knew it in the first place, but I think he was in the top ten finishers for the class, maybe top three. It was a boat that had a definite curve to one side like that gondola you pictured in your earlier post. My boss, the canoe purist, hated the very thought of the thing! It would be hard for me to believe any canoe manufacturer would produce something like this. They'd have to offer both a right and a left version, and I'm sure they'd get calls for just a little more curve or a little less curve from paddlers of different styles and strengths. Can't win. It would be hard to believe they'd sell more than a very few in the first place, likely not worth the effort of research and development or production.
 
The City of Elegant Decay. I was there in the late 1990s and mesmerized by all of that water. People had washing machines delivered by boat. Barges full of flowers for sale. Late night stand up bars drinking wine. The local people were very accommodating. Very sad to see it sinking into the Bay.

The architecture was magnificent featuring styles from all over the Mediterranean. I loved Venice. I met an Englishman sitting on a park bench. He was on his 21st visit.
 
It would be hard for me to believe any canoe manufacturer would produce something like this
You're probably right in your reasoning there. But Marc Ornstein designs his boats, and we have some excellent boatwrights who make their own strippers and composite boats on this forum....

I wonder how long it took the Venetians to nail down the sweep on the gondola.
 
I repaired a well-ripped, carbonlite kayak a few years back. I got it watertight but couldn't get some of the ripples out, more so on one side than the other. Paddled, it wanted to slightly pull to the right. I passed that boat on (for a rock bottom price) to a woman who has never mentioned that it pulled, but in retrospect, it would have been a good boat for somebody that wanted to single blade on the right side. I should have doubled the price for that customized, asymmetric hull.

I would have an issue with a curved canoe because I like to switch paddling sides. And how about paddling when wind is coming from the side? I know people that paddle only on one side, and a curved hull seems reasonable for such paddlers.
 
Yeah I wouldn't actually want a curved hull myself- I also like to switch sides periodically and conditions vary as you said. Mostly a thought exercise.
 
The curious thing is that they settled on the asymmetrical hull, rather than just adding a rudder. Even curiouser.....is that no one mentioned that yet in this thread. ;)
 
The curious thing is that they settled on the asymmetrical hull, rather than just adding a rudder.

We are canoeists. What's a rudder?

Once I went to the Pa. solo canoe rendezvous at that little Coopers "Lake" pond in PA. There were lots of canoes from vendors pulled up at pond edge. Unbeknownst to me, somebody had found a bunch of big bird feathers and gone around inserting them, upright, in the stems of some of the demo canoes. I noticed these as I was going in to lunch and, from a distance, they looked like retractable rudders pulled to an upright position.

I go into the tent for lunch and grabbed a random seat among people I didn't know. It turned out these people were freestyle paddlers, but I didn't know that. So, we were talking and I offered that it was interesting to see the canoes with rudders and isn't it about time somebody put rudders on a canoe. The ridicule from those I was sitting with was quick and unanimous. "If you know how to use your canoe you don't need a rudder because you let the boat do the steering for you." Sure, that works fine on a ten-acre pond, but they scoffed at my assertion that in the wind and waves of the Chesapeake, a rudder would be a handy thing to have.

Do you suppose the ancient Venitians were, at heart, freestyle gondoliers, so they didn't need rudders?
 
I don't quite understand the paddle propulsion and hull physics of rowing a gondola, but maybe there's some difficulty in rowing and ruddering at the same time.

On the freestyle point, I'm sure any capable canoeist wouldn't need a rudder to paddle a canoe in Venetian canals.
 
You know Steve, stern sculling oars did occur to me in pondering the possible application of stand-up rowing to a canoe. What are the comparative advantages, I wonder?

I spent a bit of time reading about yuloh/stern sculling but didn't come across anyone directly comparing them to Ventetian style. The Venetians will essentially stick the oar rewards and scull at times - the forcola has a position for this. But If I'm not mistaken, the yuloh is secured with a rope that supposedly supports/secures the oar and simultaneously makes rowing easier. Do yuloh boats benefit from a keel? Venetians always say their boats are flat-bottomed because of the shifting mud bars in the Lagoon around Venice. (If I want to try yuloh maybe a need a keeled canoe - a nice Coleman perhaps!)

Then I was watching Shogun, a historical TV drama set in Japan (how accurate, I don't know) and caught a bare glimpse of what looked like 4 guys rowing a boat standing and facing forward, similar to Venetian style. Later in the episode a different boat very clearly featured a yuloh. I've started trying to look up Japanese rowing online....my lack of Japanese may be limiting.

Why did some cultures develop rowing while others stuck to paddles? I recently read a book about the Congo - it seems they paddle their pirogues (dugout canoes) standing up with very long paddles. The Pacific Northwest tribes have massive canoes but paddled them, as do the Polynesians (though they sailed theirs as well as paddling).

I'm ignorant here - lots of learning to be done.
 
Interesting thread Alex, and good for you getting to "row" one. It seems to me that with only one oar you would have to use a sculling action, but because it sets on an oar lock I guess it's rowing. The big advantage I see is the leverage you get from that long oar, which is probably very well balanced.

You do wonder why they didn't use a rudder, but at any rate the asymmetrical hull must work for them. I liked Chips comment from the freestylers about using your hull to steer. It is something I have been working on lately. I assumed freestyle paddlers do it and white water paddlers too, but I never heard or read about it for just regular flatwater paddlers/trippers. Once I discovered how effective it is I can't stop doing it. It works exceptionally well from the stern seat because you can easily lean either way regardless of which side you're paddling on. It works paddling backwards from the bow seat too, but it's harder to lean to one side while paddling on the other.
 
@lowangle al I noted your post some weeks back about leaning, and it's been on my list of things to learn better for a while. Same for leaning during poling.

As for 'why not a rudder' on a gondola, here's some wild conjecture - perhaps it's related to why solo canoes don't have rudders either. Maybe Venetian rowing developed with two oars in a single, and a single oar fore and aft for two-person boats. Like with tandem canoeists who go to a solo, I imagine a stern rower developed correction steering strokes to match their bow paddler in tandem boats. Once the correction strokes developed and they went solo, why add the complication of a rudder? I wonder if sailing or larger Venetian craft have rudders....will have to check on that. Surely they saw the technology in their travels about the Mediterranean. I think part of what makes Venetian rowing so effective is using one's whole body and leverage to power the stroke - seems like adding a rudder might limit one's ability to fulling power the forward stroke? How would one control a rudder and row at the same time?
 
You know Steve, stern sculling oars did occur to me in pondering the possible application of stand-up rowing to a canoe. What are the comparative advantages, I wonder?

I spent a bit of time reading about yuloh/stern sculling but didn't come across anyone directly comparing them to Ventetian style. The Venetians will essentially stick the oar rewards and scull at times - the forcola has a position for this. But If I'm not mistaken, the yuloh is secured with a rope that supposedly supports/secures the oar and simultaneously makes rowing easier. Do yuloh boats benefit from a keel? Venetians always say their boats are flat-bottomed because of the shifting mud bars in the Lagoon around Venice. (If I want to try yuloh maybe a need a keeled canoe - a nice Coleman perhaps!)

Then I was watching Shogun, a historical TV drama set in Japan (how accurate, I don't know) and caught a bare glimpse of what looked like 4 guys rowing a boat standing and facing forward, similar to Venetian style. Later in the episode a different boat very clearly featured a yuloh. I've started trying to look up Japanese rowing online....my lack of Japanese may be limiting.

Why did some cultures develop rowing while others stuck to paddles? I recently read a book about the Congo - it seems they paddle their pirogues (dugout canoes) standing up with very long paddles. The Pacific Northwest tribes have massive canoes but paddled them, as do the Polynesians (though they sailed theirs as well as paddling).

I'm ignorant here - lots of learning to be done.

I first started looking into the yuloh as an alternative to an auxiliary motor for my 20' sailboat. I never did put one together, having decided it wouldn't be practical for my specific boat. But I learned quite a bit about it, although my Internet searches are not real helpful. While there are quite a few using this with sailboats which obviously do have a keel, the keel isn't necessary.

What is apparent to me though is that it works better with bigger and wider boats. I've seen several different designs for the fulcrum, but all are simpler than the forcola. I have no idea which system is more efficient, but suspect that title would go to the gondola. In fact, maybe a better question might be why hasn't the yuloh been supplanted by something like the gondola. But I suppose that could be because the yuloh can be used on various hulls with simple provisions.

As with canoes, it may be a matter of simplicity and versatility vs refinement. And that kind of leads to the question you raise about applying the yuloh to a canoe. The pole is simpler and more versatile. The yuloh and the forcola seem more suited to larger craft.
 
Back
Top