Sport Today

I searched for this and found a discussion in r.s.r from 2009 (with all
the usual suspects of the day contributing), but it went off topic and
didn't tell me what I wanted.

I want to give the novice crew I'm "coaching" some indication of the
correct hand  height on the recovery, and I've heard of people attaching
straws (or other bendy things such as cable ties) to the boat, so that
the rower may just brush them with her or his hand, thus feeling the
right height and not having to look.  Fine idea and I'd like to try it;
but can someone tell me:

(a) Where are they attached and with what?  The sax boards opposite the
rigger are smooth, other than where the ribs are, so the only way of
attaching them that I can see is by means of tape of some kind, on the
inside of the sax board.  Doesn't sound very durable.

(b) How does one determine the correct length of straw/cable tie?  I
don't have any accurate way of measuring the geometry of the boat as it
is (seat height off the water and so on).

--

Henry Law            Manchester, England

Another drill you could use is to have the crew open the inside hand so the fingers are stretching down towards the saxboard, then make sure they are brushing the saxboard with the fingers when the hands have gone away

Depending on the boat this may actually be too much of a tap down (I believe wing rigged boats have lower saxboards) but it'll help ingrain the motion of going down and away at the finish.

IME, straws are usually used for length rather than hand-height - see the South African Lwt 4- last summer. If you hit the straw every time at the catch then you aren't shortening up as you sprint. The usual method is to tape it to the inside of the saxboard - small strip of gaffer tape or electrical tape should do it. For length they are usually place somewhere near the shoulder on the rigger side. I believe some experimentation is required to find exactly the right spot.

Stewie