An Introduction to Rowing (2 page)

Club rowing spread rapidly over the country as did club regattas and by 1872 there were more than 150 regattas throughout the United States. The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839 is the oldest club in the U.S.A. The Schuykill Navy, an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia was started in 1858 with most of the member clubs located on the Schuylkill River at the historic Boathouse Row. The Schuykill Navy was the first amateur sports organization in the U.S.A.

The first U.S. collegiate boat clubs were organized at Yale in 1843 and at Harvard the following year. Initially there was great variation in the types of boats used in intercollegiate rowing. There were six, eight and even ten oared shells, both with and without coxswain, and it was some years before the "eight" became the standard racing shell. The first intercollegiate athletic contest in the U.S.A. was a race of eight-oared boats from Harvard and Yale on Lake Winnepesaukee in 1852. An intercollegiate regatta between Brown, Harvard, Trinity and Yale boat clubs was planned in 1858, but then cancelled after the drowning of the Yale stroke. In 1871 Amherst, Brown, Bowdoin and Harvard formed the Rowing Association of American Colleges.

A major development in rowing technology was the sliding seat. In 1870 J.C. Babcock of New York City successfully fitted sliding seats to a Nassau Boat Club six. These were immediately popular in the U.S.A. and were used by Yale about a year later. They were used by Oxford and Cambridge universities in the 1873 Boat Race. This changed the sport as now the use of the powerful leg muscles added speed to the boats. In 1874 the swivel oar-lock was invented by Michael F. Davis of Portland, Maine.

In 1872 the National Association for Amateur Oarsmen was started for collegiate and amateur rowers.
Modern Era

FISA, the first international rowing sports federation, was founded in 1892.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, was a rower. Rowing at the first Olympic games in Athens in 1896 was cancelled due to bad weather, and the first Olympic rowing occurred in the second modern day Olympics at Paris in 1900. An eight from the Vesper Club of Philadelphia won the gold medal for the U.S. From 1920 to 1956 U.S. crews won the gold for the eights in every Olympics. The U.S. crews that won the eights included Navy in 1920 and 1952, Yale in 1924 and 1956, Cal-Berkeley in 1928, 1932 and 1948, and Washington in 1936.

In 1904, Hiram Conibear, an athletic trainer with no rowing experience, started a highly successful rowing program at the University of Washington. In 1911 the brothers George and Dick Pocock emigrated from England to Vancouver, British Columbia and started to build shells. George had sculled as a teenager in London and won the London Bridge to Chelsea race in 1910. In 1912 George Pocock was asked by Hiram Conibear to move to Seattle to build racing shells for the UW crew. The Pocock name soon became famous for well-crafted, race-winning shells. The UW eight won Olympic gold in Berlin in 1936 in a Pocock shell.

The first race between women's college eights took place in England between Cambridge's Newnham College Boat Club and the London School of Medicine for Women in 1919. The Women's Amateur Rowing Association was founded in England in 1923.

Jack Kelly of Philadelphia won gold medals single and double sculls in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp and also a gold medal for single sculls in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He was the father of Grace Kelly, the actress, and John Kelly who himself won a bronze medal for single sculls in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

In 1953 Karl Adams founded the Ratzeburg Rowing Club at Ratzeburg, Germany. His innovative coaching and training techniques had a major impact on the development of rowing by introducing the use of interval training and weight training, as well as German rigging. The Ratzeburg eight won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, a silver medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.

In 1966 the first Head of the Charles was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has grown to be the biggest regatta in the U.S.A.

For much of its history rowing has been a male dominated sport although women did participate at many levels. In 1954 women raced in the first international championship regatta for women at the European Championships on the Bosbaan in Amsterdam. The National Women's Rowing Association was formed in the early 1960's and in 1982 joined with the National Association for Amateur Oarsmen to become the United States Rowing Association. Women first participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Internationally, women's rowing was dominated by Eastern European countries such as Russia, Bulgaria and Romania from the 50s until the 90s. The U.S.A. women's eight won their first Olympic gold medal in the 1984 games at Lake Casitas, California, and also won gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Oars have evolved from the long symmetrical square ended oars used at the beginning of the 20th century to the shorter asymmetrical oars used today. In 1959 the wider tulip shaped oar become popular at the time of European Rowing Championship held at Macon, France. The asymmetrical hatchet shaped blade, invented in 1992 by Peter and Dick Dreissigacker, is now widely used internationally.

Other improvements in equipment have happened in recent years with the introduction of new materials such as glass fiber, carbon fiber and Kevlar. The German company Empacher developed glass fiber boats at the time of the Munich Olympics in 1972. In 1977 the British company Carbocraft introduced carbon fiber shells which were much lighter than traditional wood constructed shells. They were soon popular in the U.S. Carbon fiber is also used for oars which are much lighter and without the tendency of wooden oars to warp. In addition, the heavier wooden oars tend to check the progress of the boat when they swing back on the recovery of a stroke.

A patent for a sliding rigger was registered by an English engineer in 1883. Development of the sliding rigger started after WWII using modern materials. In 1981 the German company Empacher built a rolling-rigger boat developed by Dr. Volker Notle. The rower Peter Michael Kolbe won the world sculling championship using this boat. However, use of sliding riggers has been banned by FISA. The great advantage of a sliding rigger is that since the rower's seat is fixed, the rower's mass is not moved fore and aft during the stroke which tends to check the progress of the boat. The French company Virus Boats manufactures boats using sliding riggers for recreational use.

In 1998 the River and Rowing Museum at Henley was opened. In 2000 Steve Redgrave won had won gold medals in five consecutive Olympic games in pairs and fours.

This chapter covers the equipment used in rowing. The different types of boats, oars and riggers are described. Also covered are the various measurements that are used to adjust and rig the boat properly.

In a sweep boat, each rower has one oar that is held by both hands. The oar extends either to the starboard side or the port side of the boat. Sweep boats have eight, four or two seats. All eights have a coxswain and boats with four and two seats may have seat for a coxswain or be coxless. Sweep boats are classified according to the number of rowers and the position of the coxswain. There are the following types of sweep boats:

• Eight (8+). This is a shell with eight seats and a coxswain. A coxswain is always needed because of the size of the boats. An eight is about 60 feet in length and has a weight of around 200 pounds.
  

 


Figure 3:
Eight (8+)


• Coxed Four (4+) and Coxless Four(4-). This is a shell with four rowers. A coxless four (4-) is also called a straight four and is commonly used by lightweight crews. A coxed four (4+) which is easier to row are usually used by school and club teams. A coxed four may be either bow-coxed (called a bow-loader) or stern-coxed. A coxed four is about 45 feet long and a coxless four about 44 feet long. They weigh about 110 pounds.
  

 


Figure 4:
Coxed Four (4+)


 


Figure 5:
Bow-loader (4+)


 


Figure 6:
Coxless Four (4-)


• Coxed Pair (2+) and Coxless Pair (2-). This is a shell with 2 rowers. A coxless pair (2-) is also called a straight pair. Coxed pairs (2+) are rarely rowed by most club and school programs. A coxed pair is about 35 feet long and a coxless pair about 34 feet long. They weigh about 58 pounds.
  

 


Figure 7:
Coxed Pair (2+)


 


Figure 8:
Coxless Pair (2-)