A Sculler Asks About Catch Length and Foot-stretcher Placement

The following is a response to a question by Tim, by our resident sculling expert, Casey Baker, from Resolute Racing.

Question): Tim, a reader from Australia wrote:

I’m a 193cm master. In my single I feel “jammed” for room with my hands at the release, but when I tried moving my foot-stretcher towards the bow it seemed to cost me significant length at the catch. Can I adjust my inboard, or is there something I can do with the span please?
Thanks and regards, Tim

Casey’s Response): You certainly are not alone with your dilemma of how do you keep your catch length without jamming the handles into your body at the finish.

Some boats have enough adjustments to do this. Winged riggers tend to have more holes to mount the wing as opposed to side mounted ‘A’ frame riggers. Which do you have?

That said, even various mounting positions of the wing don’t always solve the problem. The difficulty comes from where you can place your footstretchers relative to the pins and still have the clearance between the handles needed at the finish. When moving your wings fore or aft, beware of how the boat sits in the water.

Will it be stern-down too much when you are at the catch, or will the bow be under water at the finish? I like mine as level as I can make it.

Some coaches like to have the handles be able to pass by the sides of the body, some don’t. I prefer to have 4-6” of room between the handle ends at the finish, but still not have them be able to pass by my sides easily. This limits where I can put my feet and, as a result, still get some kind of catch length.

By the way, I am a master sculler at 198cm, so long legs make it not easy to fit what I want. You can narrow your spread, as you mentioned, increasing your load. This would give you more overlap of the handles at mid drive and also give less room between the handles at the finish.

If you shorten your inboard on the oars as you bring in your spread, you will tend to maintain your catch angles, but also adds to the load, specifically at the catch and first 1/3 of the drive, and yet keeping the handles properly apart at the finish. Otherwise you will end up pushing your handles more into your body, or forcing you to move your feet further to the bow to keep your finish spacing of the handles. How close do you like to keep your handles at the finish?

If you like them pretty far apart, then see if you can get used to them being closer together. If you like them close together, say less than 4”, then an oar length change with spread and inboard change may be the only way. If you have a side mounted rigger, then you may need what I call a ‘pin shifter’, which can work with wings as well. It simply allows the pin to be mounted on another platform that can give the rower the ability to move the pin towards the bow.

Another possibility is to increase the vertical distance between the heels of your shoes and the seat. A short distance (14 -16cm) between the bottom of the inside of the heel of your shoes and the mid height level of your seat will prevent you from compressing as much and as a result, keep you from getting as much of a catch angle. Increase this distance by lowering your shoes or raising your seat (seat pads or high chairs) to 16-18cm and you can get a bit more length at the catch through compression, yet still keep your finish positioning that you like. Doing this affects the overall height of your work relative to the pins, but you should be able to make changes there through your height washers.

This method is commonly used for those with long legs and shorter torsos. It keeps our knees from being up around our ears! No method seems to give everything and sometimes it just becomes how can you adjust your own rowing technique and your own feeling in the boat.

I hope this gives you something to consider as you try to find the magic position for you.

Good luck! Casey