Track bites & health
Carl Douglas
sometimes surprised & occasionally bemused by its contents. Thanks, Rebecca
My firm makes AussieRail slides. Users know that, unlike others, these
do not have shoddy, sharp corners & do not cut your legs.
For those who don't use our product, Rebecca is kindly offering
discounts on "a tidy pair of calf skin protectors".
Let's stop to think about this for a moment.
Suppose you row in a club boat, the ends of the tracks cut the backs of
a crew-mate's legs & they bleed a bit. Some blood, & other bodily
fluid, remains on the track ends - together with any infections
transmissible thus. It is also attractive to any passing fly or other
possibly infective vector.
Next time the boat goes out, you sit in that position. Perhaps you
already have track bites, or you get new cuts on that outing. What was
on the ends of the tracks from the previous user may now enter those
cuts. Days, or weeks, later you may not feel too good - you were
infected through the track bites on your legs.
This is not a scare story. Some years back an exceptional rate of
hepatitis infection was found among Swedish orienteers. After careful
work this was traced to the spikes on gorse bushes. Runners were
getting their legs scratched by the bushes & those scratches were
sufficient to leave deposits which then, just occasionally, infected
other runners.
Great detective work. More orienteers wore protective clothing & the
problem went away. After all, you can't go round shaving gorse bushes!
It is cheap to mould track ends with sharp edges & corners & fit them to
roughly cut tracks without end preparation, & rowers like cheap.
It is harder to mould edgeless track ends. And it takes time to shape &
soften the tracks to blend perfectly with those special ends. But this
is what we do with AussieRail. And now you know why we do it.
By all means buy Rebecca's calf protectors. But it makes even better
sense, all round, to replace those sharp-ended & contaminating tracks
with our non-biting, hard-wearing product.
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
Chris Kerr
I normally just wrap the slide ends in zinc oxide tape (the same as I use to
cover any particularly bad blisters). This has the additional benefit that
it stops the seat coming off if you overcompress (you can still take it off
from the backstops end if you need to for trailering etc). Not as pretty as
AussieRails, but it does the job.
Tink
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Carl, I often wondered why your slides were called AussieRail. The
name seems to infer some relationship with Australia. Could you
enlighten me (us) why they are called such?
Carl Douglas
> On May 11, 1:26 pm, Carl Douglas<c...@carldouglas.co.uk> wrote:
>> As a regular recipient of Rebecca's RP News, I'm often informed,
>>
>> My firm makes AussieRail slides. Users know that, unlike others, these
>>
>> For those who don't use our product, Rebecca is kindly offering
>> discounts on "a tidy pair of calf skin protectors".
>>
>> Let's stop to think about this for a moment.
>>
>> Suppose you row in a club boat, the ends of the tracks cut the backs of
>> fluid, remains on the track ends - together with any infections
>> transmissible thus. It is also attractive to any passing fly or other
>> possibly infective vector.
>>
>> Next time the boat goes out, you sit in that position. Perhaps you
>> already have track bites, or you get new cuts on that outing. What was
>> on the ends of the tracks from the previous user may now enter those
>> cuts. Days, or weeks, later you may not feel too good - you were
>> infected through the track bites on your legs.
>>
>> This is not a scare story. Some years back an exceptional rate of
>> hepatitis infection was found among Swedish orienteers. After careful
>> work this was traced to the spikes on gorse bushes. Runners were
>> sufficient to leave deposits which then, just occasionally, infected
>> other runners.
>>
>> problem went away. After all, you can't go round shaving gorse bushes!
>>
>> roughly cut tracks without end preparation,& rowers like cheap.
>>
>> It is harder to mould edgeless track ends. And it takes time to shape&
>> soften the tracks to blend perfectly with those special ends. But this
>> is what we do with AussieRail. And now you know why we do it.
>>
>> By all means buy Rebecca's calf protectors. But it makes even better
>> with our non-biting, hard-wearing product.
>>
>> Cheers -
>> Carl
>>
>
> Carl, I often wondered why your slides were called AussieRail. The
> name seems to infer some relationship with Australia. Could you
> enlighten me (us) why they are called such?
They're the world's first (& IMHO the best) adjustable slide tracks.
Developed many moons ago in Australia by our good friends (& very fine
boat builders) Sykes. Over time we became the N. Hemisphere supplier &
then manufacturer. Every other slide track imitates this original.
We looked for a catchy name, & AussieRail came to mind. Thinking about
rowers' legs, we designed our special end-stops. I hope that's a
sufficient account?
I'm amused by Chris's cheap fix. It's truly wonderful what you can do
with elastoplast! But why would seats come off when you
"over-compress", & why should you remove them for transport?
AussieRail, with its effective flanges & end stops, coupled with our
LoGlide seat undercarriages & wheels, mean seats never coming off &
working easily for years.
It's a funny old world, as I've said before. Each rower occupies maybe
4 grand's worth of boat space. You pay club membership, the BR levy,
travel, transport, training camps. You train like maniacs, fork out
fortunes in regatta fees, everyone must have fancy uniform kit, plus the
regulation shades, waterbottles, & who knows what. And then row on worn
out tracks, on seats which fall out, fall off or are held on with an
elastoplast bodge-up. How smart is that?
:)
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: http://tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Fordmeister
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Its funny, as the wife and I were in a nice eatery on the south bank
on Monday and watched a girl come in and get a table. I said "she
looks like a rower from thames", wife says, don't recognise her but
yes she does. The girl had a nice summer dress on, business lunch,
done her hair, make up, looked good. As she turned to go to her table
a pair of nice slide burns with just a little unwashed slide grease
was revealed and we both looked at each other sighed and said, yep ,
she's a rower.
Tink
>
> - Show quoted text -
Reminds me of a similar story. A member of our club had to spend a
period working in Spain. He popped down the local club there to see
if he could borrow a boat to go for a row. Not speaking a word of
Spanish and the club member not a word of English the only way he
could think of proving he was a rower was to show him his calloused
hands.
Roger
>
> - Show quoted text -
There is probably nothing worse that rowing or sculling with something
digging into you so I can understand all the temporary fixes that have
been developed over the year by rowers rowing (mostly) club boats. The
best I've seen i think would be the squash ball fix where 2 standard
squash balls are slit and placed over the ends of the tracks. Although
sometimes it's a rough edge from a damaged track even a smooth track
can cause a rub or a cut and usually the problem can be prevented by
better set up of the boat hence it's often worse with club boats.
It seems that people have gone to a lot of trouble to engineer a
decent solution, I remember seeing a photo on the web of a guy with a
three wheeled seat with the single front wheel down the center of the
seat. Not sure if it would work or how much extra weight you'd put in
the boat but it was an interesting idea. I'm also surprised that a
monorail seat hasn't taken off, is that a weight or a stability issue.
Lastly what determines the spacing of the tracks? is it stability v
comfort or other considerations.
Roger
Tink
I would've thought that the track width is limited by the space
between the shoulders.
Kit
It is. Wing riggers on monocoque boats don't need shoulders so the
tracks can be much wider apart. IIRC Lola boats have this arrangement.
Sarah A Harbour
Not hard-anodised though. Incidently I was asked the other week how my
boatrace lycra was still a clean minty-green clour despite me still
using it for training. The answer is that it doesn't go anywhere near
a boat that has mucky slides that could deposit black marks.
(Although, I did get nasty black splops on the long sleeve, first from
subbing into a Peterhouse VIII and then last December from the Blondie
Empacher - Cream of tartar on a toothbrush if anyone ever needs to
know - thanks to Paul S for that tip!)
The problem with calf protectors (or tubular bandage, or whatever) is
that it leaves a pretty rubbish tan/dirt line across one's lower leg.
Not so much an issue for a bloke, but if you're in the habit of
wearing nice skirts/dresses (even at HRR permitted length), not
attractive.
Sarah
PS: you don't need to remove the seat for trailering: duct tape.
Sarah A Harbour
> the boat but it was an interesting idea. I'm also surprised that a
> monorail seat hasn't taken off, is that a weight or a stability issue.
> Lastly what determines the spacing of the tracks? is it stability v
> comfort or other considerations.
>
> Roger
Presumably the width of the boat. As I found to my detriment the other
day when I did a suspension exersise in my single. When I land bow-
ward of the seat in an VIII, by backside fits between the slides and
all is fine. When I do it in the scull... ouch!
Sarah
boatie
your slides as well as the calf skins for those whose club hasn't
equipped their boats well?
Rebecca
Fordmeister
Bit harsh, I do occasionally don a pair of shorts, the sight of my
track bites is a matter of pride !
Walter Martindale
A lot of boat builders now provide small bungy cords to hold the seat
in for transport/racking. A lot of boat owners lose their bungy
cords.
If the seat's in the boat and you have a cover, why not just wrap the
whole thing up and put it on the roof rack or trailer with the seat
and feet still in? Saves having to find a place to stow them on the
trailer or in the truck.
W