One method of Re-entry single scull with backstay

[Tetsushi Ozawa]

One of useful re-entry method especially in case of single scull with "back stay"
Side entry + body turn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJECnDsXKdA

by Koki Furukawa, Wakayama Rowing club, Japan. 2013-8-15

It looks "Not so easy", but in a safety training last summer,
almost half of novice young boys and girls could reentry!
(they tried actual reentry after showing this movie and instruction)

[Henry Law]

On 20/02/15 08:00, Tetsushi Ozawa wrote:
> One of useful re-entry method especially in case of single scull with "back stay"
> Side entry + body turn.

Thank you so much for posting this (and for managing so well in a
language not your own). It is a good and useful film.

Comments:

1. I would prefer to see the sculler arrange the oar handles close
together before lifting himself into the boat. Someone who was not so
good at this exercise could easily have turned the boat over on the
other side, because the oar on that side was parallel to the boat.

2. It must be hard to position yourself _inside_ the rigger, and then to
pull yourself up without catching your clothing on the back stay.

The rower in the video is strong and compact and lightly clothed; a
larger man in less good shape (me, for example), perhaps wearing winter
clothing, would find that quite a squeeze.

3. But why have the back stay at all? Those riggers have _four_
separate tubular members (and a bar to tie three of them together). I am
not an engineer but I still cannot help thinking that a re-design would
make a simpler rigger, and make it easier to get back into the boat.

--

Henry Law Manchester, England

[Carl]

Thanks, Tetsushi!

However, I do have to agree with Henry (a noted Guardian letter-writer ;) ).

Rowers have perverse habits: on the one hand, seeking new, more clunky
fixes for what already works well (e.g. shoe heel restraints) &, on the
other, working around equipment which is evidently irrational (e.g.
ludicrously spidery-webbed rigger contraptions).

In the mid '70s I devised the simple, effective shoe heel restraint
system for quick release, & I'm the designer & maker of a uniquely
strong, stiff, simple & safe rigger system, so I remain astonished that
still we see boats with defective heel restraints & fragile riggers with
multiple thin stays.

I see that the demonstrator was at all times wearing his own shoes & not
once had his feet in the boat's shoes. If in real life the shoes either
lacked quick release, or this was ineptly & inadequately installed as so
often happens (not infrequently with bits of shoe lace, over-length &
tied in pretty bows!) then the sculler would have been in desperate need
of external rescue.

Now to backstays: these are only needed when riggers themselves are
unduly flexible. And even so, their effect is already diminished by the
time the load on the pin reaches its peak in mid-stroke. So, while not
being useless, they do have a slight equivalence in utility to a
chocolate teapot.

And now we come to the trend/call for fitting backstays as safety
devices in the event of head-on collisions. This only became of
significance as a result of the trend towards stern-mounted wing
riggers, which offered a forward-pointing & usually sharp-edged ram to
the spine & kidneys of their unfortunate target.

Backstays are real encumbrances - weight & windage which scullers could
do without, & boat-handling obstacles - while forward-pointing wing
rigger ends with sharp machined edges are a self-evident danger. And
Tetsushi, who has long campaigned for rowing safety, shows us that
backstays on singles are an obstacle to re-entry after capsize. Yet I'm
increasingly asked to supply topstays on 1x riggers which absolutely
don't need them "because of safety requirements".

How irrational is that? This week we've built a set of 4x riggers with
1 pair of backstays requested for the bow position - to meet regulations
- yet never in over 3 decades of rigger-making, with tens of thousands
of riggers made, have we had a single report of injury from one of our
riggers.

It's all about design! But those making rules, having no grasp of the
interaction between design & function, apply blanket "remedies" which
only complicate life & probably add more dangers than they remove.

Carl

--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing Low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: Harris Boatyard, Laleham Reach, Chertsey KT16 8RP, UK
Find: tinyurl.com/2tqujf
Email: ca...@carldouglasrowing.com Tel: +44(0)1932-570946 Fax: -563682
URLs: carldouglasrowing.com & now on Facebook @ CarlDouglasRacingShells

[James HS]

Normally I would agree with Henry,

But what I found refreshing about this video is the lack of NEED to get the other blade all organised - which I often find the hardest part!

Much easier to get up on the deck on side saddle and under the control of one blade which allowed him to pop onto a much lower deck.

Can't wait to try it, but hope it is no time soon :) - maybe I'll wait until I'm on camp somewhere nice :))


James

[Henry Law]

On 20/02/15 14:34, James HS wrote:
> Much easier to get up on the deck on side saddle and under the control of one blade which allowed him to pop onto a much lower deck.

You could be right. But knowing from my capsize drill how much effort I
personally need to expend to lever myself up there (low power-weight
ratio, y'see) I would still be concerned that my upward velocity,
combined with an arrival on the slide bed much less athletic and poised
than the man in the video, would overdo it, and over I'd go again.

Personally I'm far from convinced that I'd even try these days because
of the hazards of wasting effort in unsuccessful attempts at re-entry.
I think in warm weather I'd give it one go, in cold weather not at all;
then I'd be up on top of the inverted shell making like a surfer dude.

[Kit Davies]

On 20/02/2015 10:33, Henry Law wrote:

> 1. I would prefer to see the sculler arrange the oar handles close
> together before lifting himself into the boat. Someone who was not so
> good at this exercise could easily have turned the boat over on the
> other side, because the oar on that side was parallel to the boat.

I found this video very helpful primarily because my boat has identical
riggers and I haven't yet had a go at getting back into it.

One of the things I think helped was the fact that he *didn't* bother
with the far scull but just put his weight on the nearside shoulder.
This meant that the nearside saxboard/gunwhale was just a couple of
inches above the water level, making the lift and turn much easier.

If he had grasped both handles as is often taught, the distance he would
have had to have lifted himself would have been much greater, too great
maybe for the "less athletic".

I think maybe an improvement might be to arrange the far scull so that
it will be quickly at hand once you are in, rather than parallel to the
boat..

I completely agree with your other points though.

Kit

[sully]

I agree w/ Henry, thanks, Tetsushi, for the video. Everything is helpful.

We have very few masters ppl in our club that are that small and that athletic.
the method shown of getting in sideways is exactly what I teach. One of the more athletic women we have in the club, who is small enough to fit in that rigger talked to me about her experience the other morning.

In the dark, in her bow riggered Fluid, she hit a bouy and went in. She is an accomplished swimmer, had done flip tests in our aeros and stern riggered singles, and had no trouble.

This time, because she was so surprised at hitting the bouy (I know the bouy and it's unfortunately placed such that when you pass a point, and incoming tidal flow will shift you right into it), that she didn't get her oar handles together as we teach.

She is very athletic, but not enough so jump from in the water to butt on seat in one motion. Most ppl have to shimmy their way in, get most of the body up, and inch themselves up so the butt gets out of the water. It is during this time where having the other oar for stability is helpful. The woman sculler verified this, as she failed twice to get into the boat. She told me after the second failure, she had a brief moment of panic, something that really surprised her. She calmed herself down, then went through the steps and got in ok on third try by holding the handles to help stabilize.

Some athletes can get into a single sit in it without olding the oars, doesn't do the rest of us much good!

My other quibble is the seat. I teach to move the seat all the way to stern and under the hand holding the oar handles. That hand can press down on the seat to give a higher leverage point to push the body up out of the water.

The second advantage is that you avoid knocking the seat sideways and possibly derailing it as you are getting in the boat. You just sideways on the tracks, get the oars under control and boat leveled before swinging the feet in. Then, with seat in front of you, you can lift yourself with one foot on center strip and one hand behind you to set onto seat.

[marko....@gmail.com]

While I have yet to have the misfortune to need to try any re-entry in anger this looks needlessly challenging in athletic ability at a time when stength is limited (cold water).

Why not use stability from the blades to get in rather than wobbling balancing on one side?

A failed attempt also looks like it could cause the boat to capsize and bend the backstay (it looks bent already in the video)

I'll stick to aptly titled 'seal on the deck' method I think.