For Spectators
Rowing Facts
THE RACES
The San Diego Crew Classic® has several different classifications of races:
Collegiate: Collegiate rowers who must be eligible in accordance with NCAA rules.
Junior Varsity: The second fastest shell from a university or junior crew.
Novice: Rowers or coxswains in their first year of competition.
Junior: Rowers who are 18 years old or younger, or enrolled as a full-time high school student.
Club: For this event - rowers from one organization who have been a member of that organization since the preceding October and who regularly practice with the Club and live within 100 miles of the Club .
Master: Minimum age is 21. The crews average age (all those in the boat except the coxswain) determines the event in which they will row.
THE ROWERS
The rowers race within two classifications: heavyweight or lightweight. A lightweight man may weigh no more than 160 pounds. A lightweight woman no more than 130 pounds.
Coxswains also have weight standards. For college men, a minimum of 125 pounds. Juniors’, Clubs’, and Masters’ men's coxswains a minimum of 110 pounds. Women’s coxswains a minimum of 100 pounds. If the coxswain does not meet the weight standard, the crew will be required to carry weight (usually bags of sand) at the coxswain’s position in the shell to make up the difference. Women may cox men’s shells, but men cannot cox a women’s event.
THE RULES
Each crew is allowed one false start. Two mean disqualification. If, within the first 100 meters of the race, there is a legitimate equipment breakage, there will be a restart.
Crews may move anywhere within the course as long as they do not impede another crew. Referees use flags to signal the crews. Red means stop. White is used to start the race, signal a fair race, and direct a crew which may be heading for a collision.
THE BOATS
Shells are made of wood, carbon fiber, or honeycombed fiberglass. All sculls are shells, but not vice versa. People who have two oars in the water are called scullers. You can row by yourself with two oars in a single (1x), with one other person in a double (2x), or with three others in a quad (4x). People with only one oar are sweep rowers. The normal configuration of a sweep boat has oars alternating between right and left, or starboard and port sides of the boat. Sweep rowers come in pairs (2), fours (4), and eights (8). They may have a coxswain, in which case they’re called a pair with coxswain (2+), or a four with coxswain (4+). The coxswain is the on-the-water coach and strategist who also steers the boat. Pairs and fours also come without coxswains (2- and 4-). The eight always has a coxswain (8+).
The San Diego Crew Classic® is an eight-oared regatta. One boat, eight rowers, one coxswain and a tremendous amount of training, skill and dedication make these teams winners.
THE OARS
Oars move the boat through the water and act as balancers. Sweep oars—12′ to 13′ long—are approximately two feet longer than sculling oars. Although there are still many standard oar blades, a recent development is the big blade or hatchet, which is 20 percent larger than the standard blade.
THE BLADES
All modern rowers use carbon fiber “hatchet” blades with wood or composite handles. Prior to the availability of these advanced materials, oars were made of wood with a slender blade design known as a “tulip”.
HOW FAST IS AN EIGHT?
The fastest boat in the 2009 Crew Classic was the Stanford men’s team in the Copley Cup heat where they traveled 2000 meters in 5 min, 50.09 seconds.
That works out to 12.57 miles/hr or 20.24 km/hr.
The men’s world record, per Wikipedia is 5 min, 19.85 seconds or 13.987 (oh heck, 14) miles/hr or 22.51 km/hr.
QUICK FACTS
- Rowing is one of the original sports in the modern Olympic Games.
- Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, was a rower.
- Eight-man shells are about 62 feet long and weigh about 230 pounds.
- There is no professional rowing for which these athletes to aspire. This is a purely amateur sport.
- The first amateur sports organization was a rowing club—Philadelphia’s Schuylkill Navy, founded in 1858.