The People Of Rowing (Part 2)

A guest post by John Leekley from WildGoose Rowing. This post is written mostly to thank the amazing people at Chatham Area Rowing in Savannah, GA, who helped me out by pulling our trailer off the highway and out of harms way.

I am the reason for Mike’s last post, The People of Rowing.  I am probably the reason for most of the non-family related stress in Mike’s life as well. I work for Mike, and like all coaches, I’m learning how to do my job and making a ton of mistakes on the way.  Mike gets the brunt of these.

I drove the truck and trailer south for the spring training trip this year, breaking down in Savannah, GA.  I had to leave the trailer on the side of the road and go with the tow-truck to get the truck fixed.  For the weekend and most of Monday I camped out at a hotel while the mechanic discovered one problem after another with my truck.

The biggest stress for me this weekend wasn’t the fact that my team was running on the beach instead of rowing, or that my truck was in the shop, or that I wasn’t at the beach after a winter of 80 inches of snow. It was that my trailer and all those shells was stuck on the shoulder on I-95.  I spent most of my waking hours trying to find a truck to rent or borrow, with no luck. (Why don’t they teach this stuff at the coach’s clinics?)

Then I found Chatham Area Rowing Association on Row2k and called them immediately.  They answered my call for help, giving up a practice to pull my trailer of the interstate and to the hotel where I was camped out.

One of the things that I have always loved about rowing, and one of the things that has kept me in the sport for 13 years, is the people.   Without people like Scott Nohejl, the head coach at CARA, the rowing community wouldn’t be what it is.

Rowing is a sport where people help people, whether they are rivals or competitors or friends or whatever.  I had never met Scott before cold-calling him Monday afternoon to beg for help.  He didn’t hesitate to answer my call, and his generosity saved my boats and maybe someone on the highway.

I, and my program, owe Scott and CARA a tremendous amount of gratitude.

Hopefully someday we’ll be able to repay it.

15 Passenger Vans And Rowing Shells Don’t Mix Well

Dick recently submitted this question and seemed like a great one to open to discussion:

I read in my copy of  “Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging” that one should never use a 15 passenger van to carry a boat.  Our club has been using a 15 passenger van for some years to carry a 4+ about 75 miles to a regatta, and there have been no issues.  What’s the problem, overhang?

The overhang Dick mentions is certainly an issue (Overhang is the length an object extends past the end of a vehicle). Some states only allow 3 feet of overhang, and although it has been a while since I’ve seen (or measured) the overhang of a four on a 15p van, I would bet that it would be upwards of 10 feet or more.

However, the real critical issue here is roll-over. Fifteen passenger vans are notorious for their roll over problems, contributing to many accidents and deaths. Many institutes no longer use the vans, and those that do usually limit them to only 9 passengers (to keep the center of gravity lower).

Locally I know that if I were to transport shells on a 15p van that I would void the insurance.

My suggestion would be to check with the local authorities to see what they say about your suggestion, and then check with your insurance company.

I would also suggest that you do a quick Google search on these terms, “roll over 15 passenger van.” I think you will find the results quite sobering.

That’s my advice to Dick. What do you think?

A Creative Way to Keep Straps Organized On Raceday

Fellow coach and friend, Jason Steele, who coaches Worcester Polytechnical Institute (WPI), has a handy method to keep his team’s straps organized when they travel.

He uses a spool (yellow round object in photo) that he picked up at Home Depot, made it to fit the rack support on the trailer, and then just rolls up the straps when they are not being used. When they are needed, he just unrolls them, and removes the spool for traveling.

Very handy and inexpensive.

Gotta love those engineers . . .

Are You Thinking About What Tomorrow Will Bring For Your Rowing?

A Sunday special post

photo by luismi1985

Coming back from a race yesterday, I got worried—really worried.

It wasn’t about the team or the race results.

Instead it was about something haunting. The future. Specifically, money for the future.

During the regatta, as I watched one of our races go by I struck up a conversation with a parent of one of my rowers. The theme of the conversation was how bleak the economy looks right now, and how discretionary money in people’s budgets are drying up.

We both wondered what tomorrow would bring.

Why is no one talking about this at our level? Read more

Transporting Rowing Equipment Cross-Country (reader question)

A reader recently asked:

Hello Mike,
I found your site while looking for information on transporting a rowing shell across the country. My son is a college varsity rower and has purchased a shell (for sculling).

Do you know how folks get their boats back and forth across the country?

He was able to hitch a ride for the boat with a team that was traveling from the east to the west at the end of May. But, to get the boat back to the east for the school year, it seems there is not as much travel in August. Do you know of any shipping companies or better yet, some type of fellowship of rowers who move boats back and forth and often have a spare spot on a trailer?

Seems my son cannot be the only person with this problem?

Any suggestions?

My response:

I think that you really have two choices: (a) a company that is transporting shells, or (b) a team that is doing the same.

Most teams won’t be moving boats until either later Fall or the Spring time, so that might not help.

Per the former, a company. Several shell companies deliver boats coast-to-coast, and some might have orders in early Fall. I would suggest either Pocock or Vespoli, USA. There are others, but these two are very busy, so you might have a better chance of getting a ride.

There are also some boat repair companies that do the same. I might suggest Klinger Engineering. All will charge a decent amount, but you would be hiring capable transport.

You might also try USRowing. They might have some suggestions.

And how about you? Any helpful insights about cross-country transport?

How To Double-Strap Your Shell—And Why

Several years ago I wrote an article about how to strap your boat, for Row2k.com. At that time there was a serious discussion about strapping, accidents, and how to prevent them. I stuck my neck out and offered my opinion.

Not everyone liked what I had to say.

As most coaches/rowers/Riggers I try to learn as time goes by, and when I am wrong I will be the first to admit it . . . however, in this case I think that time has shown that my suggestions on strapping a boat are catching on, and hopefully helping.

You can read the entirety of that article, and I stand by the concepts there. However, I want to emphasize a particular method of strapping a boat—that of double-strapping—that I feel I didn’t emphasize strongly enough. Read more

How Do You Strap Your Boat?

I just received this question, from Beth, about the best way to strap a boat. I would like to use it as a discussion starter:

Hi Mike! I am with a H.S. team and I’m hoping you can help settle an argument about the best way to strap down a boat when we’re loading up the trailer. We have one coach who says we should loop the straps around the inside brace when we’re strapping down the outside boats. He thinks this will prevent them from coming loose. The other coaches disagree because it puts the straps at an awkward angle. Do you have an opinion?
Thanks!

So that’s Beth’s question. (Look at the straps on the photo above to get an idea of the position of the straps.)

So what do YOU think? Do you have an opinion, answer, suggestion, story or idea to share? If so, leave it in comments below. I plan on posting a video about how I suggest you strap next week.

How to Get More From Your Rowing Strap

Too often the straps we use to secure our rowing shells get abused to the point of revolt. The revolt can range from something small— such as getting all knotted, to something catastrophic—such as fraying or breaking at the worst possible moment.

Straps need TLA—tender loving attention. They don’t need a lot of it, but you have to give them some. If not, you WILL have a revolt. Guaranteed.

The video shows one simple thing you can do to prove to your strap that you love it, and help it be there for you when you need it. I call it the Page Roll. Rob Page was a coxswain of note for our team several years ago and he showed me this simple way to store our straps while at the same time checking them for problems (such as fraying) that could indicate the strap might fail at when you needed it most. (The audio may not work, so I’ve included notes below).

It is a fairly simple process:

Step 1: Unfurl the strap, and look it over for any frayed edges. If you see any the strap needs to be replaced, and DON’T use it. Let me be clear about that. It is a BAD (UNSAFE) strap. Get rid of it (for example . . . give it to an athlete for a belt).

Step 2: Take the end and slide it through the large opening of the cam. This is NOT the opening that the strap goes through to be tightened. Pull strap through about eight inches.

Step 3: Begin rolling the strap from the fold in in that is away from the cam buckle. Gentle, and tightly, roll it until you reach the cam.

Step 4: While holding the cam buckle against the roll, take the end that you put through the cam in step 2 and wrap it around the roll. Then put the end through the slot in the buckle. Gently tighten it up.

The strap will now stay neatly in a roll, ready for action when you are. A great benefit to this method is ease of storing. You can get numerous rolled straps in a small space.

Will Your Trailer Hitch Be Ready When You Are?

Take a look at the back of this truck. What do you notice? (Or more specifically, what don’t you notice?)

This is exactly what I saw the other day when I came out of my hotel room during our recent Spring Training trip. I went to connect the shell trailer to the truck—no hitch. Some time during the night some person decided that he (or she) needed our trailer hitch more than I did.

Hitches are one of those items—like car insurance—that you don’t greatly appreciate until you really need it. And then when you need it to be ready to go, and it is not—whammo. Read more

(Rowing) Pain At the Pump

We are all suffering pain at the pump right now. However rowing coaches can suffer a level of pain that most other drivers do not have to endure. This picture above should give you some indication of what I mean.

More boats and rowing equipment are damaged in transit than while in actual use. Although I haven’t seen statistics to back me up on this, I would venture a guess that a significant about of that damage happens while fueling on trips. I have had several coach-friends tell me “bummer” stories about gas station crashes. Read more

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