1/1 - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University
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R owers<br />
The<br />
Technology Crew<br />
call them hatchets, the asymmetric oars<br />
with blades resembling meat cleavers. They're<br />
slightly shorter than the classic tulip-shaped variety,<br />
but they provide 20 percent more surface<br />
to push through the water. When hatchets hit<br />
the American market in late 1991, they didn't attract<br />
much attention.<br />
But Dartmouth College's crew noticed. In 1992, the<br />
Big Green outfitted its eight-man varsity<br />
boat with a set of hatchets and became only<br />
the third crew since 1958 to win both the<br />
Eastern Sprints and the Intercollegiate<br />
Rowing Association regattas in the same<br />
year. (<strong>Cornell</strong> achieved the same feat in<br />
1963.) This spring, few top collegiate crews<br />
are racing without the new-fangled oars.<br />
"They took a little bit of getting used to,<br />
but I can't imagine rowing without the hatchet<br />
blades now," says <strong>Cornell</strong> rower Tom Shanahan<br />
'94.<br />
Hatchets are the most recent in a series<br />
of changes reshaping a sport that, perhaps<br />
more than any other, reveres tradition.<br />
New technology and increasingly intense<br />
competition to recruit top rowers are steering<br />
the sport of rowing into the fast lane of<br />
American college athletics.<br />
"We're on the entrance ramp to this superhighway<br />
now," says David Kucik, <strong>Cornell</strong>'s head<br />
rowing coach. The result of the changes has been dramatic<br />
improvements in racing times. Just two years ago,<br />
top college crews were winning 2,000-meter races in<br />
an average of five minutes and 45 seconds. These days,<br />
that time has dropped by almost 15 seconds.<br />
Those results should continue at least to inch downward.<br />
One of the main reasons is that the equipment is<br />
constantly improving, sometimes at lightning speed.<br />
Boat manufacturers are incessantly honing their designs<br />
to make more efficient use of weight, drag and<br />
even lift, as well as to provide rowers with maximum<br />
possible leverage. One of the most critical factors in giving<br />
rowers the most forward movement for their stroke<br />
is the stiffness of the shells. Wobbly boats quickly dissipate<br />
their rowers' energy, while a stiff shell provides a<br />
more complete transfer of the oarsmen's energy to the<br />
water.<br />
Maintaining stiffness in a craft that must also be light<br />
in weight has long proven a vexing challenge for shell<br />
manufacturers, prompting them to experiment with a<br />
variety of new materials and designs. Once made of wood,<br />
virtually all boats are now constructed of meshed glass<br />
and carbon fibers and other synthetic materials such as<br />
Kevlar, a durable plastic used in bullet-proof vests.<br />
Modern eight-person racing shells weigh about 200<br />
pounds fresh out of the assembly shop; their wooden ancestors<br />
weighed more than 270<br />
pounds. The rowing rule of thumb<br />
is that every five to 10 pounds of<br />
shell weight equals about a second<br />
over a 2,000-meter course.<br />
Racing shell builders must find<br />
the right recipe of materials so the<br />
boats aren't too heavy, too wobbly<br />
or too expensive. Carbon fibers, for<br />
instance, are light and stiff—ideal<br />
for shell hulls. But a boat made entirely<br />
of this material would be prohibitively<br />
expensive. Eight-man<br />
shells made of a mixture of materials<br />
like Fiberglas and fiber already<br />
cost $16,000 and up, and are raceworthy<br />
for only a few years before<br />
they lose much of their stiffness.<br />
"Ideally, you'd like to have a<br />
new boat every season," Kucik<br />
says, "not only to stay on top of the new technology, but<br />
because of the stiffness."<br />
Boat manufacturers say they could produce significantly<br />
faster models than they now make, but costs and<br />
rowing regulations prevent them. Eight-man boats usually<br />
must weigh a minimum of slightly more than 205<br />
pounds (93 kilograms) to compete in collegiate regattas,<br />
so it's pointless to try to cut weight below that.<br />
Some shell makers have experimented with special<br />
hull surfaces that slip through the water with much less<br />
resistance. Designers have gone so far as to try etching<br />
Just two years ago,<br />
top college crews<br />
were winning<br />
2,000-meter races<br />
in an average of<br />
five minutes and 45<br />
seconds. These<br />
days, that time has<br />
dropped by almost<br />
15 seconds.<br />
JUNE 1994<br />
19