The Rabbit Hole

Hello readers,

It's been a while between posts as the season winds down, and I take stock as to what will come next.

Long story short:  I have no idea.  

With that being said, there was a post on Row2k about rigging, red flags in rigging, etc.  Rigging is an interesting topic, and it's fun to discuss, but it's a dangerous topic and one that you can easily get lost in.

First things first:  Do not blame the rigging for losing.  

It's not the rigging that cost you a race.  It's the training, the race prep, the technique.  The only way for rigging to be the reason is if you're completely out of the park on it.  Too heavy or too long, too short, setting the feet incorrectly to your stroke and the emphasis, etc.  But that's rare, and by rare I mean since 2004, I have encountered exactly two instances where rigging was the problem.  Three.  

The first, someone rigged a boat and clearly had no idea how to do it.  Everything was wrong from the pitch inserts to the overall spread.  It was a boat I borrowed from a small college club program - I knew the boat prior to asking otherwise I would have passed - so I tore it down and fixed it, replacing the parts that needed replacing, and rigging the boat correctly.  

The second was when the oars were rigged incorrectly.  The top two boats were using C2 Fat2s which usually suggest shortening the overall length before starting to measure.  The lower boats were using Smoothie blades which had a different overall starting length recommendation.  The person who set up all the blades incorrectly set all the blades to the Fat2 length which made the lower boats spin their wheels since the blades could not get the correct leverage.  

And finally, I was at a regatta where the coach I was working with had not prepared in advance for the weather and rigging numbers.  When it came time for their boat to race, they were panicked because there was a minor headwind and rather than having their numbers charted out - something I recommend - they raced around trying to adjust everything.  This resulted in them panicking their athletes, overcompensating for a very slight headwind - 5 mph - and the boat fell completely flat during the race, struggling to the finish line.

Rigging, in my mind, is simple.  You do it three times a season.  Once in the fall, once at the beginning of spring, and once before championships.  Maybe twice if you have a qualifier such as junior regionals, and then nationals.

You do not need to spend days rigging your boats.  You do not need to rig your boat repeatedly throughout the season.  And unless something hilarious happens, you don't need to check your rig each day.  If there was a bad crab, if it looks like something may have gotten loose, if it looks like something isn't right, then obviously you will want to check it, but generally, I believe that once you set it, and set it correctly, it should stay in place.  

It's tempting to dive deeply into the rigging books, and start playing with numbers and spread.  

I did this.  I was never taught to rig, so I had to read up on it, and of course, I got into the parts about rigging for individuals in a boat.  The year that I did that, the height of my crew varied between 5'9 and 6'4 which made the idea of rigging individually very tempting.  I spent a good 10+ hours working on the rig of the eight, and can honestly say that those are 10+ hours that could have been spent doing anything else.  I was young and silly then.  

Yes, a spread between 6'5 and 5'9 is fairly massive, but that could have been accomplished by checking the arcs and moving that one individual oar or seat a bit, rather than going through all eight stations and "tweaking" them.  

Generally, I begin my rigging setting the boat to a standard rig.  Let's say it's heavyweight collegiate men with an avg. weight of 192 lbs, 6'3' height, fairly strong, with a 6:20 erg average.  

I'll likely set the boat to 83.5/376/113.5.  That's a general rigging setup that most heavyweight collegiate men's crews would recognize.

From there, let's see what we're working with.  One of the things I will do, especially since I am currently working on a river, is check the rig on flat water.  Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a single regatta we would race that would be on a river so checking flat water is a good way to know if I'm correct or not.  If we're looking a little sluggish, then I could increase the inboard a bit for more leverage, but chances are that other variables need to be considered such as the amount of training we're doing, the stroke pair, the experience in the boat, and conditions.  It might look sluggish, but the water could be cold, we could be racing into a headwind, there might be some chop.  Generally, when it comes to assessing a rig, I look everywhere else first rather than start playing with the numbers.  

One thing I try to never do is change the rig at the racecourse.  That sends the wrong message or messages at the wrong time.  It makes the crew question everything they've done for you, and what you've done up to that point.  It starts to get them to panic because if coach is panicking, then there must be a reason to panic.  It's easy to get completely flustered and rig incorrectly especially if you're in a hurry.

There have been times when I've had to rig a boat differently and that only happens when I'm sharing a boat.  I try to never share boats because of the above reasons, and mostly because when you're in a hurry, you're likely going to make a mistake and forget to tighten something down.  

I will absolutely never try a rig at a race.  I have been at a regatta and watched as a crew swapped from a standard port rig to a double bucket between a morning and afternoon row, as well as swapping athletes.  That to me is insanity.  The idea that you'd test a rig at a regatta rather than testing it at practice baffles me.  If you thought the bucket rig was the correct rig, then you'd run that.  If you thought the port rig was the correct rig, then you'd run that.  And if you thought either was the correct rig, then you'd have tested it prior to arriving at the race.  And if you didn't know either, then I'd say you're down the rabbit hole on rigging.  

Bottom line is this:

* Rigging, even if it's wrong, is not why you lost.  You lost because you weren't prepared.

* Never change rigging at the regatta.  Clam up for a strong headwind, maybe bump out if you have a strong tail, but overall just leave it as is.

* I do not believe in crazy rigging like the battleship or triple buckets - I've seen both - or other odd rigs.  I have no issue with a bucket, or a starboard stroke, but at a certain point, you're just showing off.

* Rig consistently.  Even if it's completely wrong, at least all seats will be wrong.

* Put the time into rigging prior to racing.

* Use cheats to help you quickly set up rigs - tape, markings, etc.

* Try and not share boats that will require different rigs.  

* Generally, the standard rig works and it's standard for a reason.

I'd say happy summer racing, but Covid has shut us down, so happy hand washing and stay safe.