Oar handle issue

Our crew has an oar problem.  Lots of not quite there oars.  One lot had very fat handles and another set had these funny plastic handles.  This second set had been rejected sometime ago and the set with the fat handles had been conveniently ignored.  Our club has two other sets of oars used by the two better crews and we would use one or other of those sets.  Only when all three boats were out did we have a problem and we would use the fat handled oars.

As the HOTY loomed closer it was decided to send the plastic handles to Croker for them to cover with veneer.  The handles returned looking nice but with an issue.  The problem was the end where the outside hand is placed was very narrow - 32mm.  I found that when I used the oar I ended up with small and very painful blisters in the crease of my fingers behind the fist knuckle.

This morning I arrived at the shed a few minutes early.  Armed with various raw materials and some ideas I fashioned a grip using a HOTY stubbie holder and some cloth sticky tape. 

This worked well but as expected it was spongy.  My concern with spongy is that it will absorb power and we need as much power as we can get.

After the row this morning I drove to A-Mart All Sports at Mt Gravatt.  I purchased the rubber grip for a cricket bat $10.  The helpful staff showed me how to use a "cone" to put the grip onto a cricket bat.  Alas they did not have any cones available for purchase.  I phoned Rebel Sport and they advised they had them at $15 each.  I then spent 3/4 hr driving at a snails pace through the Garden City car park.  It was stupid.  Gridlock.  Finally made it out and parked across the road and walked in.  Bought the "cone" and a coffee.  Met Dick's wife and a couple of other people.

Walked back to the car.  Somewhat difficult as these centres seem to be designed to disorient me.  I figured I would take any exit and then work out where to go once I was outside.

Back at the shed, I began the process of putting the grip on the oar handle.  The demo I received seemed so simple at the time but in practice I had missed something.  Youtube came to the rescue
Some kid helped me out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mryzps-tJkA

Here you see the cone at the bottom.  The grey lump is the rubber grip ready to rollover the silver bit and onto the oar handle.  The silver bit is a part of the cone.
One layer of grip is already on the oar

Here we see two layers of grip.  You can see the overlap.

A couple of other rowing pic.
In this pic John from the Shadows is dismantling their oars and pouring out some water that had leaked in.  We also measured all of their oars and ours.  All seemed to measure up correctly.

Another bit of work on our new grips.  Smoothing the veneer off with steel wool.  Worked well.