Is Your Waterbottle Sinking Your Shell?

. . . it very well could be!

Casey Baker, who has been featured here before, recently wrote to me about damage to the bottom of shells. He has been noticing it due to the hard Nalgene water bottles that many rowers are using. Casey is currently the Southern rep for Resolute Racing Shells and sees a lot of boats at all the races he attends.

According to Casey what causes the problem is that during practices rowers store the bottles in the bottom of the boat. The bottles tend to roll around and if there is any sand or grit the bottle can cause wear that actually goes through the inner skin of the boat.

This can especially be a problem in wade-in launching situations, and also may be an issue in saltwater programs since salt can act as an abrasive, like sand.

A simple solution that Casey recommends is to put a sock around your water bottle. Another is to get a padded water bottle holder and clip it to the heels of your feet.  Pad it and/or prevent it from moving as much as possible.

Casey (and I)  hope this keeps some of you from needing unnecessary repairs!

Thanks Casey!

Measuring Rigger Height in a Rowing Shell (Basic Rigging Video)

The height of a shell’s rigger is important for two basic reasons: efficiency and comfort. When the height is right both of these components are maximized. When the height is off the rower will either be less efficient or uncomfortable, or both.

I recently wrote on how to do a super simple quick rigger-height check while on the water. The following video is about measuring the height while the boat is in slings (although it can be measured while the boat is seats down if you are adventurous).

The steps to measuring are simple, and so are the needed tools. You can go more advanced with tools, such as with the Active Tools rigging stick (which I like) but a basic tape measure and straight edge is really all you need.

Hope this video helps, and if you have questions or comments please leave them below.

Where Should I Place My Footstretchers In My Rowing Shell?

I received this question the other day from Casandra.

Hi Mike: I am 2 seat in a lightweight women’s eight…but we have to row in a men’s boats. This is a really basic question; How do we determine where our foot stretchers should be positioned?

Thanks for the question Casandra. Let’s try a detailed view first, then a quick possible solution.

For Really Novice Rowers (Really novice)
For those rowers just starting out, placement of the footstretcher can be a great teaching tool. Often coaches will put the stretchers at a point where the rowers can use the track’s sternmost stops as a teaching device, so that they don’t over- or under-compress. The feet are placed so that the rowers will almost hit the stops just at the catch. If they go too far, wham, and they stop. For good or for bad, it does help teach.

For Rowers Looking For Comfort
In the past many rower’s calves really suffered greatly from the effect of either the seat track or boat deck digging into them at the end of each stroke. One method of relief was for the rower to move the footstretcher greatly stern-ward, to give the legs more room at the end of the stroke. More room, less digging into the calves. Newer shells with adjustable tracks usually don’t present this problem.

Rowers Looking For Speed
More experienced rowers, which it sounds like that might be you, are looking for something different. They are looking for speed. They want to place the stretchers in the correct position to maximize the energy that is put into the oar.

And it is important where they are placed. The reason being is that placement is about the distance the hip of the rower is located, at the catch, in reference to the pin. And the faster the boat, then the further through the pin (greater the distance that the hips are stern-ward).

Rowers looking for speed will tend to place their footstretchers according to either

1. shin angle to water’s surface
2. work through
3. catch length
4. catch angle

Each of those methods become more involved in terms of the mechanics of determining the correct placement of the stretchers.

Down and Dirty
So, with all that written, what should you do?

If you are sharing the boat with a men’s team, or any other group, then I would suggest that you place the footstretchers in a position where your shins are just shy of perpendicular to the water, at the catch. That might be about the best you can expect when sharing a boat, unless it is rigged specifically for you.

If you are not sharing the boat, it is just your team in it, then I suggest that the boat be rigged off of leverage numbers picked for your group. (You can find suggestions here.) From there use work through. Probably for lightweight women you may be looking at a range of 6 to 10 cms, as measured by the method on my numbers page.

Once you have set the feet, do some testing. Have a SpeedCoach? Great, test away. If not, then use a stop watch.

Adjust, test, readjust until satisfied.

(If you are interested in catch length and catch angle I cover those in my book, and the details are probably too lengthy for a blog post.)

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