Hey thanks a lot guys!

Yea I figured that my time was worth too much until I was faced with having to drive to Sportco and shell out $$$. I re-thought the whole situation and figured $25 worth of Ash, and some of the that elbow grease (6 hours) was worth the effort.

fp - Yep I figure that the boots were the eventual cause of the rot. I still put em back on because they'd be beat to deatch from the rocks if they weren't there.

Can anyone think of or know a better way to protect the ends of the oars??? (the boots obviously have some flaws)