Word: boatful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Crimson rowers comprise the biggest part of an eight-oared shell and all of one four representing the Union Boat Club in the regatta. The colors of the Weld Boat Club, of Eliot House, and of the Newell squad will emblazon the oars of seven other eights. Three singles and a quad (four oarsmen plying eight oars) will also represent the Weld Boat Club. A double (two oarsmen and four oars, without a cox) have been working out of Weld in the past weeks but won't enter the regatta as plans now stand...
...known among crewmen as "catching a crab," and is generally considered a fate worse than death, especially if it occurs during a race. Many time the effect of knifing in is not so devastating as described above, but even the slightest tendency toward this mistake will unbalance the boat and cause the oarsmen on the opposite side to "wash out," finishing their stroke with oars partly out of the water...
...eight men who occupy the first boat are invariably of similar build broad shouldered and long-limbed. In addition to these criteria, the prospective varsity oar must be endowed with coordination, large quantities of stamina, and equally generous amounts of enthusiasm, patience, and guts. But a man can have all the latter qualifications and still not become an oarsman unless he has the height to give him leverage to generate the needed power...
...when men were men, it was fashionable to take a heave at the oars. Which left the upper body almost parallel with the water. The principle behind this was that a mighty pull more than offset the waste motion and energy involved. Such fine points as not wobbling the boat or making a smooth recovery were ignored...
That is why, in the three races so far this year, the Crimson has ignored the convention of sprinting when they are comfortably in the load. Were they to be pressed, however, the boat would go up to 40 for the final minute, and it is at such times that a crew's ability is really put to the test. It is only the instinctive ability to row well that can put a man through such a test...