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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

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