RowingChat

Get confident steering your coxless boat for long distance racing.

Timestamps

02:00 Going straight

This is the first lesson because if you can't go straight it really affects your steering.

Consider your strength imbalances if you have been a long term sweep rower moving to sculling. Equalise your arcs by watching and listening for these three things

- Entry timing

- Release timing

• Pressure

If your strength is unequal - don't over-power one side compared to the other, row the same arc.

05:00 steering off a point. Watch your wake - see if it is going straight, keep an eye - your stern. Learn how to set your point off a landmark on the bank like a tree or building. Row away from the point and watch your wake to see if it's going straight. Learn to make small corrections before you are way off course.

06:00 Where the boat pivots is approximately in the middle of the boat.

07:00 Bridges

Not all bridges are created equal. First choose which arch you want to go through in the race.

For HOCR at Weeks Footbridge you have to both steer the bridge and make a sharp turn after passing under the bridge. Decide where under the bridge you want to pass - is it in the middle or more to one side or the other? This depends on what you need to do after the bridge.

Ideally row the course before the race to learn the course. Line yourself up under the bridge so you can see what your points are as you go through the bridge so you know what to steer off.

10:45 Bridge supports are where to focus your line of sight.

Two ways to look around in a rowing boat - a glance over the shoulder and a complete turn to see your bow ball and what's directly in front of you.

Look for the uprights of the bridge - these are easier to spot than the gap in between.

For a bridge you want to go through straight.

Decide which upright you want to steer off - choose one (right or left), do a glance, then decide if you need to do a steering correction. If there is a stream (racing against the stream) you may choose to be closer to the bank so you minimise the effect.

Take a second glance as you get closer and correct if you need.

14:00 For bridges you go through not in a straight line - know where you need to go after the bridge. Relative to the uprights, decide where you want to position your boat.

Is the bridge wider (a highway or motorway)? Rebecca prefers to steer before you go under the bridge so you come out straight for the next part of the course - push off the bridge as you exit it.

Line up your stern so you know where you want to go through it.

16:00 High and long bridges like Interstates or motorway bridges. Keep an eye out for posts or markers near the abutments. Bridges often have underwater structures wider than the abutment above the water - these create eddies which swirl the water.

17:15 Corners

A sharp corner cannot be navigated with pressure. It takes too long to do.

Turning to port - use your starboard oar take a short stroke from catch to cross-over, use fast short strokes.

Do as few strokes as possible when steering a corner. This is slowing the boat down so minimise the strokes you take.

20:00 Looking and steering corners.

Turn your head to look around without disrupting your balance and rhythm. Practice in training, turning your head (it weighs 15 lbs) without upsetting your balance.

Alternate looking around then do pressure steering. Don't steer until after you have taken a look around. The exception is if a crew is closing fast behind you but you can see them coming so don't need to look around.

Know where the corner begins for a long gentle corner. Start the turn with a few gentle turning strokes. Then look and go straight for a few strokes, take another look. Then make steering adjustments and alternate looking and pressure steering.

Expect to look around frequently.

Count strokes to help you make a sharp turn in a practice outing so you know what to expect in the race.

24:00 Buoys

Know the race rules - are you penalised if you hit them?

Some you can scull over the top of like albano system marker buoy. Or will you be penalised if you hit them?

Improve your bladework so you know if you can feather high over the buoys?

Turning buoys - if you bump into one they may not turn over and get out of your way. You may need to hold water. as you turn. Come into a turning buoy at an angle.

Use a mini restart after a turn to get back up to speed rapidly.

28? Carlo Zezza Book Winning Head Races includes course maps and advice for popular rowing races like HOCR, Silver Skiff and London Tideway Head Races.

https://amzn.to/3CSZdtH

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Racing equivalence for masters depends on using time handicaps.

Does this work well?

Can it be improved?

What would you change?

Timestamps

02:00 What are handicaps?

Welcome our guest, Christopher Anton, a World Rowing multi-lane umpire.

Handicaps were introduced 1980-1990s to try and level the playing field for crews of different age.

There are tables which are standard times - based on regatta distance and the masters age groups which then indicate the handicaps by age group.

The younger crew starts after the older crew and if everything works perfectly, they will dead heat on the finish line.

The regatta organisers publish a set of standard times before the regatta starts. Now in the UK they race over 2 or 3 categories of adjacent age groups. Scotland has a different set of tables than England.

05:30 The timetables have been derived empirically over the years.

US Rowing has a formula depending on the average age of the crews which deducts time at the end of the race.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both methods.

It's an art more than a science. In England the older crew wins about half the races.

08:50 Head races use the tables but this was introduced more recently.

The tables were extrapolated out to 50 minute long races. The handicap gets deducted from the elapsed time at the finish.

11:00 Are handicaps a good thing for masters rowing?

Christopher thinks generally they are good. They provide racing opportunities where they wouldn't before when insufficient entries are received in a single age group.

Handicaps were not designed to enable a 27 year old to race an 80 year old. In UK they tend to use 10 year age bands.

They shouldn't be used as a way to get out of giving prizes - Head Races use them to give one prize for masters.

13:30 British Rowing Championships introduced a "Club" race which uses 3 age groups together along with ranking points. This is A, B and C; then D, E and F as a separate group. These show better correlation than age. This is for non-championship events. So they do not use handicaps.

British Rowing ranking points explained for seeding each heat in the event. These roughly correlate with speed.

With a tailwind the "standard time" for the course would reduce to account for the wind.

18:00 British Rowing are reviewing their handicaps - they haven't changed since they were first set up. The older age categories were extrapolated from the younger ones.

Should handicaps, be the same for men, women and mixed? If an F sculler has a 15 second handicap should this be the same for women?

Menopause affects women so their times degrade more steeply than men.

21:00 The Concept2 world ranking is a big data source for erg race times as they are globally comparable.

More women in 50-60s train more frequently nowadays so we better understand diet and strength training post-menopause which affects race times. There are higher levels of competition into age 70s.

Marlene has seen men who stay in good fitness through their 50s and 60s don't get erg times dropping off a lot until they are over 70.

24:00 Are the handicaps appropriate for those new to the sport in their 40s?

Pathway for the adult beginner.

The San Diego Crew Classic introduced a new rower / intermediate category for masters in their first 5 years of rowing based on Faster Masters recommendation.

Skill is a bigger determinant than age for beginners.

British Rowing no longer has a novice category. But river regattas are offering races for masters new to the sport.

New Zealand rowing offers a. novice year for your first year after you have entered your first race. Masters practice less frequently than juniors and so Rebecca is encouraging regattas to offer events for those new to the sport (3, 4 or 5 years).

Christopher thinks British Rowing could look at having intermediate level event races.

30:00 FISA Masters Champs has a big entry for popular events e.g. E1x and FIx. can have 50-60 entries. They put you in heats in order of age - you may be against F age or older. It ensures fairness by age and you can end up in the oldest heat when nobody in the race is actually an F age.

FISA has no appetite for change because they have enough entries in every category.

By comparison, the World Masters Games has heats, semis and finals so you know who the overall winner is.

The skill levels are very different at older age categories. The Euro masters had heats racing together at the end after day for small boats in order to try to find the overall champion.

In Australia they have a 10 lane supreme sculler handicap race at the end of the regatta for all the single scull age group winners.

#rowing #Mastersrowing #worldrowing

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Rowing your first 2- or 1x race, side by side

- What to do

- What to expect

- Recovering from mistakes

Timestamps

00:30 Why do people learn to row? At the start, few want to race.

02:00 Your first race.

You may feel "on stage" at a race and there are eyes on you. The

outcome doesn't matter. It's personal

04:00 Learning in small boats 1x and 2- .

The boat is your coach it gives you feedback - you will learn steering, balance, run on the recovery. Learn delicate steps which you take into large boats. It's the foundation to build your skills.

06:30 What to expect at your first race.

Start by planning the race day. Get from the boat park to your race and back to the boat park. Write it down on paper.

Start with getting the boat to the regatta, rigging it, checking your oars, have you got water bottle, how to get to the dock. Getting into the boat on the dock; know the circulation plan, where the warmup area is. How much time do you need to allow to ensure you are at the start 5 minutes before your race?

Backing into the start, turning the boat, what is your start sequence, do you need pushes, what are the marker points down the race course, what happens after the race, can you get back to the dock and how will you get the boat and yourself back to the boat park?

Use this list to prepare yourself.

08:30 Do you know the course? Can you practice the day before? Take time without pressure to practice on the water. Is there current or stream? Take ownership of the water.

10:45 Make checklists of things you need from packing, things to take in the boat,

Timings for starting your preparation, for your boating (getting on the water), warmup.

Having a supporter to help you is good. You may have to wait in a queue for a while before you can get onto the water.

13:15 Type two fun - really hard while you do it and it's great to talk about afterwards.

Do you bring your family to come along?

15:15 What will actually happen?

You may be lucky and it all goes to plan.

Plan for the unexpected. Because steering errors will probably happen.

What about the person next to you - the crew next to you may interfere with your steering. Have a plan for what to do after interference. Try a rolling start to get boat speed back up after a mishap.

18:30 Marlene's first race. She came off her seat,

Mike Teti said "It's only a mistake if you do it twice."

Enjoy it. Pick a local, familiar course which is manageable.

Speak to someone who is more experienced - what could I have done in this situation? Learn from your experiences.

22:00 Trial practices to help you learn.

3x 1,000 meter pieces with three crews side by side run on Wednesday nights.

The fastest person would go up one wave, if you were second you stayed in that wave for the next race; if you were third you dropped down to the next wave. Each wave gradually gets closer together in speed.

Head race trial races done internally in your club.

Learn how to race when around other boats. Get used to them being near to you. Learn how to call out to them for steering warnings. Practice steering small adjustments.

23:30 In a single scull you are your coxswain - make sure they have seen you if they steer close to you. Call early "Take a look". They can make the steering adjustment.

If you think you know what you want them to do say "Steer away" or "Steer to port". You offer them a solution and they may just do it. Collision avoidance.

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Sometimes athletes get very, very tired. Today we will talk about recovering from exhaustion and the power of napping.

Timestamps

01:00 Is it under recovery or over training?

Mike Spraklen described it as under-recovery. Marlene prefers this term because it affects your ability to train.

You don't have to be fully recovered to train effectively. You feel on "high alert" all the time.

04:00 Six causes of exhaustion noted by Elizabeth Avery, sport nutritionist.

- Inadequate sleep

- Depression or extreme stress

- Acute illness e.g. cold virus

- Inadequate nutrition especially carbohydrates

- Inadequate hydration

- Insufficient dietary iron - can affect vegans, vegetarians and women more.

What's the reason?

If your training has increased a lot recently, that could be a reason. You should be able to adapt to the new training load. Check your nutrition preferably post training.

06:00 There can be an accumulation of fatigue from session to session.

After a heavy training day you may need an active rest day.

How to balance your training.

Emphasise quality over quantity.

07:45 Adapting to a new training load.

Going from 5 x per week to 6x per week. Is a 12% increase in training.

Keep to a 5% increase. After a big jump you may feel OK for a day or two, but it will catch up with you.

As masters, your cause of exhaustion may not be rowing-related. It all kicks off the same cortisol hormones

10:00 What about naps?

Elliza McGrand naps heavily after a heavy training day. She asked the Masters Rowing International group if others had the same outcomes.

Listen to your body and respect what it's telling you. Your best recovery method is sleep.

People are different with naps - some do it every day.

- Lie down and close your eyes.

- Set an alarm so you wake up in time.

Bodily stimulation comes in through your eyes - rest your nervous system by closing your eyes. 13:00 What is restorative for you?

Some people find a daytime nap affects their night time sleep. If you don't tolerate daytime naps, find another thing that rests you.

Cooking or gardening, yoga. what do you enjoy?

Even walking for 10 minutes has a positive effect to your nervous system.

As we age our bodies change - you may need naps now and not in the future.

15:00 Leaden legs can happen after a nap.

A good way to revive is to wake up slowly, move slowly, do a bit of stretching, walk gently for a couple of minutes.

Even 5 minutes of repetitive activity gives you the same Dopamine hit as a workout.

Rowing repetitive cycles are restorative activities to the nervous system.

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The benefits of drills and ways to improve your rowing boat skills.

02:00 Skills in the boat.

You have to spend time in the boat to acquire skills. What is your available time for practicing?

Choose frequency over long outings. If your crew practices 3 times a week, can you add in a short single sculling outing alone to develop your skills?

- Establish patterns

- Body sequence

- Blade work

- Power application

- Steering

Use structured exercises to learn the pattern.

Execute all your drills to a high level of skill - move carefully and deliberately.

05:00 Check your static position first at the finish at the start of the outing.

Re-check each outing, especially if your crew lineup has changed.

06:15 Have a plan. Don't just go through the motions thoughtlessly.

Pick drill has a purpose. It's a drive suspension drill and also to warm up your body. Be mindful in the boat with your movements.

Develop your skills - check your adjustment each outing. Rushing into the outing may not be helpful.

08:30 Skills progression for masters rowers.

Faster Masters has written a progression of skills from Beginner, intermediate and through to advanced skills.

This is the first time we have ever seen a detailed list which athletes can use to track their progress - tick each one off as you learn.

10:00 How a coach can use the skills progression with a group.

Know what each athlete needs to Learn NEXT.

More experienced athletes can process more coaching input. Beginners don't need the

why. Just orient them to the boat and the stroke to begin with - introduce the why later on.

When the coach focuses on the least experienced first it can mean the more experienced don't get coached.

14:00 Challenge the experienced athletes

Different skilled athletes in one crew, use the drill to coach both inexperienced and experienced people giving them both something to work on in the drill.

16:00 Getting a new crew together using drills to align stroke patterns.

- Pause at hands/body away aligns the timing at the release. Work on this first.

Give the less experienced people one point to focus on and something more advanced for the other athletes. Be creative in your coaching. Each person wants individual attention.

- Pause at release and observe your finish body position. Check your elbows, posture and feet positions.

- Blade tap down - start with oars on the surface of the water when on the recovery. This teaches the handle height on the drive phase. Then tap down 1 cm and progressively increase the depth of tap down. Allows being more precise about the weight in the hand on the recovery.

- The rowing in place drill - also known as the Push / Pull drill.

Helps adjust hands correctly on the oar handle, learn the body sequence and keep the oars horizontal in both the recovery and the power phase.

You can watch the top edge of the blade in the water during this drill.

How to get the skills drill progression document. It is part of the Masters Coaching Certification course.

https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/coach-certification/

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Join Volker Nolte as he talks about his latest book - Rowing Science.

https://amzn.to/3QhyHSE

Timestamps

01:00 Volker has written two editions of the Rowing Faster book and now a third! This is part of the Rowing Science book series published by Sport Kinetics.

03:00 Volker has brought a group of experts together to write different chapters in the book with him editing it.

He thinks it is much better having a diverse team to layer down the topic comprehensively.

04:30 This is a follow up to Rowing Faster - first published in 2005 and focused on coaching.

The second edition of Rowing Faster included Olympic Gold medalists writing introductions to the chapters.

06:00 In this era of misinformation it's important that rowing is presented in scientific and well researched way to set straight some of the misunderstandings and bad information.

Ideas like "even splitting" in races are a good example of this.Volker took scientific data and analysed it and can prove that it's misguided to see to even split a rowing race.

Rowing needs this book now

09:00 Too often stylistic differences in rowing are presented as facts.

Volker believes rowing science helps by giving the reader ways to understand using a speed coach. Analysing speed and stroke rates allows you to see if there are correlations.

12:00 What is rowing science?

Try different things in the boat and by testing you will learn about what is effective. Create knowledge about the physical and social part of rowing using theories which get empirically tested and assessed. Prove things by measuring.

14:30 All rowers will benefit - get comfort in the boat, some speed and learn from Rowing Science.

3 Things a Rowing Coach will learn

Volker did a Q&A with a club recently and all the questions were answered in the book!

All rowers have questions and want to know answers. Every chapter has things you can tae with you for your rowing practice.

17:00 Is lactate positive or negative?

This is an area where Volker has revised his thoughts based on new science. He explains that lactate is a source of energy and is positive, the pain burn comes from the acid which comes with the lactate. Paula Jardine and Gunnar Treff write about this.

- Brett Smith presents his ideas about how New Zealand rowing is so successful.

- Penny Werthner writes about team culture and its importance, how to create it.

- Volker's chapter is about rowing blades and what each type does.

20:30 The art of coaching rowing

The book title should make you excited - Paula Jardine brings ideas about how the brain works to learn new technique using repetitions.

Learn rowing by letting people do it and the more often they do it, the better they get. Coaches talk too long when working with beginners. The art of coaching is to involve everyone as much as possible. On top of this, there is no art without science.

You have to know how rowing fits together, know what you're talking about.

Develop your own art on top of the science. Most rowing is based on similar theories, the better athletes are using the best theories.

26:00 Copying someone else's coaching method doesn't usually work.

Experienced coaches should not feel threatened by less experienced coaches who want to video them, learn from them. Sharing your expertise as a coach should be seen as a threat. A new coach can't replace you.

28:30 Volker learned from mentors, including Thor Nielsen.

He invited Volker to Italy to his training centre. After watching Thor coach, he asked what he was doing inviting guest rowers, guest coaches and sharing his knowledge. You're telling them your training plan and allowing them to take your secrets.

Thor said, "You cannot grab something with a closed fist."

This was a concept that I really like - I offer all that I know in the book Rowing Science.

Buy your copy of Rowing Science by Volker Nolte

https://amzn.to/3QhyHSE

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Tim is the club coach for Monmouth Rowing Club who won the Victor Ludorum Prize at the 2023 British Masters Rowing Championships.

We discuss his methods, what the club is like and how to replicate success.

Interview Tim Male Rowing Coach

04:00 Monmouth Rowing Club - the town rowing club draws people from around 20 miles away to join.

05:30 The club had talented individuals but rowed in small groups. Focus on private projects. Fragmented. Big projects require co-ordination.

06:30 Changes Tim made to the Club culture to bring people together.

- Rowing together

- Mixed crews

- 60 active masters rowers. Some were very inexperienced LTR graduates.

- The "club group."

- The" performance group" men;' women.

Everyone rows together for regional and local events.

09:15 Private Projects abandoned.

Getting value from coaching was the main draw. Subscriptions increased to pay for the coach. Improved performance from a universal structure with coaching and training structure.

11:00 Coaching has broad goals regatta dates, training in 4--5 week blocks. Each gets 2 coached sessions per week. Rest are self-guided.Tuesday + Wednesday evenings are long rows with priority given to one group each day. Sunday coached sessions at fixed times of day.

13:45 Pathway to Victor Ludorum

Season One, they raced one day at British Masters and finished top 5 in sweep events. Under- represented in sculling.

Season Two, decided to race both days and incorporate the dub group to step up to race the non- championship events. Anyone who has not won a championship event can race non-championship events.

17:00 Progression pathway for new athletes so they race similar skilled people

18:15 Crew selection using subjective and objective factors:

1) Technical capability

2) Team building commitment, reliability

3) Coach ability and capability to change.

Allowances for frequency of training.1k Weight-adjusted ergo tests for men for choice boats. Target was top 3 in Victor Ludorum.

Training fitness to be able to do up to 6 events over a weekend. Up to 12 races. Points mean prizes. We operated on the picket fence mentality as long as they got points towards the main challenge.

23:00 Future plans

Take the club to International events like the European Masters Championships, Head of the Charles, Local regattas with unified club events, and Autumn head race targets.

25:00 Advice for another club who wants to build a competitive pathway.

Generate the culture first.

With Masters Rowing there is a range of people, capability and experience. This makes crew selection tricky. Uniform rowing style so swapping crews is easier. You need a broad scope for success and developing from "underneath" (less skilled people).

https://www.monmouthrc.org.uk/post/british-masters-victor-ludorum

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Join Monmouth Rowing Club's Tim Male as he talks about his season with the club and how they won the Victor Ludorum £1000 prize.

Timestamps

02:00 Interview Tim Male

04:00 Monmouth Rowing Club - the town rowing club draws people from around 20 miles away to join.

05:30 The club had talented individuals but rowed in small groups. Focus on private projects. Fragmented. Big projects require co-ordination.

06:30 Changes Tim made to the Club culture to bring people together.

- Rowing together

- Mixed crews

- 60 active masters rowers. Some were very inexperienced LTR graduates.

- The "club group."

- The" performance group" men;' women.

Everyone rows together for regional and local events.

09:15 Private Projects abandoned.

Getting value from coaching was the main draw. Subscriptions increased to pay for the coach. Improved performance from a universal structure with coaching and training structure.

11:00 Coaching has broad goals regatta dates, training in 4--5 week blocks. Each gets 2 coached sessions per week. Rest are self-guided.Tuesday + Wednesday evenings are long rows with priority given to one group each day. Sunday coached sessions at fixed times of day.

13:45 Pathway to Victor Ludorum

Season One, they raced one day at British Masters and finished top 5 in sweep events. Under- represented in sculling.

Season Two, decided to race both days and incorporate the dub group to step up to race the non- championship events. Anyone who has not won a championship event can race non-championship events.

17:00 Progression pathway for new athletes so they race similar skilled people

18:15 Crew selection using subjective and objective factors:

1) Technical capability

2) Team building commitment, reliability

3) Coach ability and capability to change.

Allowances for frequency of training.1k Weight-adjusted ergo tests for men for choice boats. Target was top 3 in Victor Ludorum.

Training fitness to be able to do up to 6 events over a weekend. Up to 12 races. Points mean prizes. We operated on the picket fence mentality as long as they got points towards the main challenge.

23:00 Future plans

Take the club to International events like the European Masters Championships, Head of the Charles, Local regattas with unified club events, and Autumn head race targets.

25:00 Advice for another club who wants to build a competitive pathway.

Generate the culture first.

With Masters Rowing there is a range of people, capability and experience. This makes crew selection tricky. Uniform rowing style so swapping crews is easier. You need a broad scope for success and developing from "underneath" (less skilled people).

27:15 Marlene's impressions of Monmouth Rowing Club's success

It takes a lot of organisation, time and thought for reorganising the group and writing a strategy for managing 60 masters. Blending the groups together and mixing crews was clearly challenging.

A purposeful structure.

28:20 Rebecca believes that creating a pathway was crucial to underpinning the later success.

Helpful to introduce a new challenge for experienced athletes. New skills in small boats help improve the big boats as a win:win situation.

Fitness was crucial to the success.

It helped having athletes who already knew how to train hard and race hard. combining with the less experienced people helped teach them how to row hard.

Knowing how to race is a whole other level of rowing and the competitive mindset.

30:00 The structure of the British Masters Championships having two events also helped. They could blend the experienced with the less experienced and still win points.

Tim emphasised the importance of being coachable, flexible so you can row in multiple events.

Recovery from races - he who has the best recovery between race events wins!

Rebecca likes that they support local events and sees this as a pathway to teach racing to less experienced athletes. It is a lower investment in time, money and travel.

33:00 Learn to rowers come to racing gradually. It takes a while for them to see the attraction and to get confident enough to row hard.

Read about the win

https://www.monmouthrc.org.uk/post/british-masters-victor-ludorum

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- What to look for in a rowing boat, how to assess wear and tear and what can (and cannot) be repaired.

Holes flagged out Hairline cracks on riggers Speak to Boatbuilder

01:30 What to look for in a rowing boat?

Right size for your body weight is the number one consideration. Then check our podcast last week on buying a new boat - the same issues apply.

What is your budget?

03:00 Height of deck relative to the water surface will show you whether a boat is the correct size for you.

At the extremes of the weight ranges you should check carefully whether it will fit you.

04:30 Find the serial number of the boat you are interested in.

When did serial numbers start getting added to rowing boats? Serial Numbers Post 1992 Barcelona Olympics it became standard practice based on FISA (World Rowing) boat standards.

Call the boat builder what was the build weight? Year built? What hull shape was it designed for.

History of the boat - how many owners has it had?

08:30 What questions to ask the vendor.

- Major repairs or structural damage

- Is it heavy? Know how much a 1x weighs on minimum (14 kg).

- Cracks or blemishes on a rigger e.g. hairline fractures

- How much has it been rowed?

10:00 What comes with the boat?

If this is your first boat purchase - rowing electronics, slings, oars to set you up.

11:00 What will make it the way you want it?

Consider the wear and tear on parts

Shoe size may be wrong but isn't a reason not to buy a boat.

e.g. oarlocks, slides, seat wheels, shoes, canvasses made from canvas all can be replaced.

14:00 Red flags which you should be alert for

- Hull pits and cracks

- Boat skin condition - is it oxidised?

- Gel coat condition - turn your head and look sideways down the hull.

- Check the dents using a torch - if above the water line it's more cosmetic. But if it's below the water line it could be more serious and cause leaks.

Always try the boat and use your instinct - does it feel nice to row?

17:00 What repairs has it had?

Did it go back to the boatbuilder to be fixed? If it's painted over you cannot see the repair.

Major repairs are a red flag. Any repair will add weight to the boat. Does this matter to you?

18:45 DIY Improvements to your boat

Look at the V-splash saxboard behind the cockpit - wobble them with your hands and see how robust they are. Also stand next to the cockpit next to the shoulders/knees where the riggers attach - hold the sides of the boat and pull your hands towards each other. A broken shoulder lowers the value and needs repair

For wing rigger boats - check for hairline cracks along the flange where the riggers mount.

You might need a bow ball, the number slot, scull grips.

21:00 Respray the paint and your boat will look like new.

Hull integrity is the key consideration.

Marlene refurbished her own first single.

Rigger holes - check they aren't flogged out and enlarged. This means there is play in the rigger - you will need to get these fixed. Over-tightened rigger bolts / nuts can add indentations to the shoulder and you can add a large penny washer to hold the rigger more securely.

22:30 Haggle on the price.

Any purchase is a negotiation. Ask the vendor to suggest a price reduction if there are things you want fixed. And ask the boat builder what they think it could be worth (ballpark figure). Some boats hold their value well if taken care of.

Ask the vendor to suggest the price first.

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Exciting times - how to find the boat that's right for you.

Top items to check from budget to accessories.

PLUS bonus - how to test a boat on the water.

Timestamps

01:15 Buying brand new - start with your rowing plans? What will you use it for?

- Recreation

- High performance shell

- Racing or not racing

- Your water - flat or rough open water?

03:00 Boat size for your weight. You should choose a range of weights to reflect your needs.

A 15kg range is normal - from below and above your mid-point.

The test is can you get the oars out at the finish while rowing square blades?

Different boat builders have multiple hull shapes - mid weight and heavyweight hull shapes.

05:00 Your physical proportions

Have you got a long or short back?

06:00 Price budget for your new boat.

Things that cost more and add to the overall price

- boat materials -

- rigger choices (aluminium or carbon fibre) or reverse wing

- shipping from overseas manufacturers

08:00 Accessories add cost. Here is a list of things which you can add

Shoes; electronics, carry slings, oars (blade design), a boat cover.

11:00 if you know the hull you want ask the manufacturer for different priced materials which use the same hull mould and cost less.

You can make custom seat tops (Carl Douglas); adjustable height seats, buy your riggers direct from the rigger maker. Durham Boat make carbon sweep riggers and Carl Douglas makes side-mounted (Euro) riggers.

14:00 Storage and transportation

Where will you keep your boat - is there a rack at your club? Or at home? Is there a waiting list for club racks? Consider a roof rack for your car. Can you lift it on top of your car? Tim Crooks and Burnham Boat make car carry racks.

For outside storage consider getting a boat cover or boat bag to keep the UV rays off the hull.

Make your own roof rack using a ladder - the span of your car roof alone is insufficient to support a 7 meter long single scull.

Can you slide your boat up onto the car roof rack when loading it unassisted? How heavy is the boat with its riggers - can you lift it above head?

19:00 Ordering your new rowing boat.

Contact the boat builder and ask about lead times. How long do you have to wait?

Their estimated time needs a cushion - align with your seasons. Order in October for a March delivery. Extra lead time may be worthwhile.

Do they require payment - what are the payment terms - deposit, up front, payment plans may be possible.

The earlier you tell the boat builder of your intention to buy - will put you onto their build schedule.

It's exciting putting in your boat order.

22:00 How to test a boat to find what's right for you.

Measure your current boat first - know what you are used to. The length of oars and inboard, the span, spread, the footstretcher position in front of the pin, the seat to heel cup, the oarlock sills height above the water surface (measure when sitting in the boat). Ask to try out someone else's boat. Adjust the trial boat to match your normal rig.

Footstetchers are particularly important when testing a boat. Make the height washers reasonable for you. This affects your perception of the performance of the boat you are trying.

24:15 Comfort is the first consideration.

Every boat rides a little differently. How does it feel?

Listen to the sound of the boat as you row it.

Test rows what to cover (have a speed measure with you).

Do a normal warm up.

How do the balance, height, blade grip at the catch, seat and slide feel like?

Do some pieces in the boat 500m or 2 minutes at 24 (firm pressure) and 2 minutes at rate 30. Row in the same direction if it's windy so your speeds are comparable.

Do some racing starts. Record your speed measurements so you can analyse the results afterwards.

Testing a recreational or coastal boat - you may not get as high stroke rates. Try different types of water - choppy water, open water, get into the waves, get some flat water too.

Can you manage the boat alone? Does it beach launch well? Where to store life jacket, a dry bag and your water bottle?

29: 00 Try as many brands as you can.

Camps who supply boats can give you opportunity. The manufacturer's representative can introduce you to local owners who may loan you their boat to test out.

31:30 Customer service.

Ask other owners how good the service is. Ask about popular spare parts - does the dealer carry these locally?

Who do they recommend for repairs?

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