Rowing

by R. C. Lehmann

There is no need for me to set out the rules of the road for a coxswain to follow, as they can be read at any time in the Rowing Almanack, which comes out annually, and is published at the Field office.

To steer a straight course, a coxswain should fix upon a high and conspicuous object some distance ahead, and endeavour to keep the nose of his boat dead on it; and when learning his course, he should remember to choose objects of a permanent nature, or in the race he will be in difficulties. Now, the keeping of a straight course is not so simple as it appears; in fact, it is a most difficult thing to do properly, and there is no case in which the advantage of a coxswain with light hands is better displayed. It will be noticed that

such a one leaves scarcely a ripple in his wake, whilst another will leave a considerable wash. The reason of it is this: that whilst the former uses practically no rudder, the latter, by first pulling one line and then the other, causes the stern of his boat to swing from side to side, until, as the sailors say, she becomes wild—that is to say, so unsteady that the further she travels the more rudder she will require to prevent her bows from yawing and to keep her course. He should never steer for a curve in the bank or for other projections—as, for instance, the buttress of a bridge—in such a manner as to be compelled to sheer out to clear them. He should approach a sharp corner as wide as possible, in order to reduce the acuteness of the angle at which he will have to take it, and should have the boat's head round by the time that the axis or pivot, if I may use the term, on which the boat swings, and which in the eight-oared boats I steered was usually trimmed to be somewhere between the seats of Nos. 4 and 5, is off the most prominent point.

The difficulty of taking this sort of corner is increased when the course lies up-stream, according to the strength of the current; for not only

does the current acting on the bows tend to prevent the boat coming round, but also to drive her head towards the opposite bank. When the Cam at Cambridge is in flood, "Grassy" and Ditton are corners of this character, but usually that river runs sluggishly. But even then these corners present many difficulties. "Grassy" is on the right bank of the river, and therefore on the coxswain's left; Ditton is on his right. The former is the harder to manipulate properly, by reason of the river becoming a narrow neck shortly before the corner is reached.

In taking "Grassy," the coxswain should keep close to the tow-path bank until he commences to make the turn. It is impossible to explain on paper the exact spot when he should do so. The common fault is to begin too soon. Practice and experience only can teach him when to time his action correctly; but having acquired this knowledge, he will get his boat round with but a moderate amount of rudder, especially if he call upon bow and No. 3 for a little extra assistance.

Some years ago, during the Lent Term Bumping Races at Cambridge, the coxswain of one of the boats, with the intention of cutting off the

preceding one as it was being steered round in the correct way, took this very corner close to the inside bend at its very commencement, and in so doing acted contrary to the principle of giving a sharp corner a wide berth at the first part. The consequence was that, having failed to calculate the pace at which the other was travelling, and having missed his bump, he found it impossible to bring his boat round, ran high and dry on to the opposite bank, and was, of course, himself bumped.

Ditton should be approached as wide as the coxswain can manage, by hugging the opposite bank until he begins to bring the boat's head round, which, as in the case of Grassy, should not be done until as late as possible. Here, too, Nos. 2 and 4 may be called upon to help her round. The rudder should be put on between the strokes as a rule, gradually, and not with a jerk, which has a tendency to cause the boat to roll. It should be used as lightly as possible, and never under ordinary circumstances put hard on. The effect of a cross wind is to drive the stern of a boat to leeward, and to bring her bows up into the wind. This should be counteracted by the coxswain steering to windward of his usual course,

and by lee rudder to meet her: how much can only be learnt by experience, and must be regulated by the strength of the wind. The fin, which is a thin plate of metal fixed slightly abaft the coxswain's seat on her keelson, is of great assistance in keeping the boat straight under such circumstances.