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Heel restraint cords for essential quick release
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carl
Sep 14, 2015, 2:37:44 PM9/14/15
to
I suspect that most of us decry the borrowing of the time-honoured term
"quick release", hitherto limited to the provision of essential passive
release of the foot from the shoe in an emergency, to describe a
commercial stretcher fitting which does no such thing?
I have this evening received an email from someone I know & trust, & who
is regularly involved in FISA functions, including crew safety.
He had been puzzling over the frequency with which inspections showed
so-called heel restraint cords to be shoe laces, each tied neatly in a bow.
He was further puzzled when on occasion pre-launch inspections showed
these useless shoelaces to have been tied so short that no crew could
possibly row with them thus.
It had also puzzled him that, once afloat, crews are not infrequently
seen to be fiddling for some time with something out of sight under
their shoe heels.
Then the penny dropped: in all probability these bow-tied laces were
being undone as soon as they were thought to be out of sight of anyone
on the bank, by rowers obsessed with what they fondly imagined was the
need for unlimited heel lift.
In short, there are a lot of rowers & coaches showing supreme disregard
for both crew safety & the problems they can cause for regatta officials
when, as in that near-drowning of the pairs crew at the 2006 WCs, they
are confronted by rowers now in dire straits through their own foolish
disdain for essential safety equipment.
My informant suggests that tacit acknowledgement of this deliberate rule
breaching may lie behind FISA's recent mandating of so-called quick
release straps across the instep of shoes - making it that much easier
for an over-stressed rescuer to free a trapped, inverted rower. But
that this new ruling, in its turn serves to further justify the
deliberate abuse of heel restraints by rowers & coaches. And that this
pattern of abuse at elite level is infecting the whole sport.
He suggests that the only way to prevent such sly abuse is to mandate
that heel cords be non-removable.
I completely agree. If in any way a heel cord can be removed & re-tied,
then there are enough idiots out there to do just that, & to spread that
word.
In that connection: while I like Rob Purves' proposal for a
spring-locked hook to attach heel cords to shoe & stretcher, that is
also the very easiest arrangement to disconnect once afloat.
So I will underline the vital importance of banning shoe laces from use
as heel restrain cords - we should mandate permanently-attached braided
nylon cords. AFAIK, the one way to ensure that heel cords can't be
loosened or removed is to use a fused knot in the thermoplastic fibre, &
the itself should be of adequate thickness (say 4mm diam). Anything
else or less is mere gesture safety.
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
"quick release", hitherto limited to the provision of essential passive
release of the foot from the shoe in an emergency, to describe a
commercial stretcher fitting which does no such thing?
I have this evening received an email from someone I know & trust, & who
is regularly involved in FISA functions, including crew safety.
He had been puzzling over the frequency with which inspections showed
so-called heel restraint cords to be shoe laces, each tied neatly in a bow.
He was further puzzled when on occasion pre-launch inspections showed
these useless shoelaces to have been tied so short that no crew could
possibly row with them thus.
It had also puzzled him that, once afloat, crews are not infrequently
seen to be fiddling for some time with something out of sight under
their shoe heels.
Then the penny dropped: in all probability these bow-tied laces were
being undone as soon as they were thought to be out of sight of anyone
on the bank, by rowers obsessed with what they fondly imagined was the
need for unlimited heel lift.
In short, there are a lot of rowers & coaches showing supreme disregard
for both crew safety & the problems they can cause for regatta officials
when, as in that near-drowning of the pairs crew at the 2006 WCs, they
are confronted by rowers now in dire straits through their own foolish
disdain for essential safety equipment.
My informant suggests that tacit acknowledgement of this deliberate rule
breaching may lie behind FISA's recent mandating of so-called quick
release straps across the instep of shoes - making it that much easier
for an over-stressed rescuer to free a trapped, inverted rower. But
that this new ruling, in its turn serves to further justify the
deliberate abuse of heel restraints by rowers & coaches. And that this
pattern of abuse at elite level is infecting the whole sport.
He suggests that the only way to prevent such sly abuse is to mandate
that heel cords be non-removable.
I completely agree. If in any way a heel cord can be removed & re-tied,
then there are enough idiots out there to do just that, & to spread that
word.
In that connection: while I like Rob Purves' proposal for a
spring-locked hook to attach heel cords to shoe & stretcher, that is
also the very easiest arrangement to disconnect once afloat.
So I will underline the vital importance of banning shoe laces from use
as heel restrain cords - we should mandate permanently-attached braided
nylon cords. AFAIK, the one way to ensure that heel cords can't be
loosened or removed is to use a fused knot in the thermoplastic fibre, &
the itself should be of adequate thickness (say 4mm diam). Anything
else or less is mere gesture safety.
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
Message has been deleted
madmar...@gmail.com
Sep 14, 2015, 9:01:54 PM9/14/15
to
On Tuesday, 15 September 2015 02:37:44 UTC+8, carl wrote:
snip
>
> Carl
>
> --
Perhaps a savvy umpire could inspect a few boats on the dock upon their return?
snip
>
> Then the penny dropped: in all probability these bow-tied laces were
> being undone as soon as they were thought to be out of sight of anyone
> on the bank, by rowers obsessed with what they fondly imagined was the
> need for unlimited heel lift.
>
snip
> Then the penny dropped: in all probability these bow-tied laces were
> being undone as soon as they were thought to be out of sight of anyone
> on the bank, by rowers obsessed with what they fondly imagined was the
> need for unlimited heel lift.
>
>
> Carl
>
> --
Perhaps a savvy umpire could inspect a few boats on the dock upon their return?
Henning Lippke
Sep 15, 2015, 9:53:45 AM9/15/15
to
> And yet permanently attached cords are a problem if you have someone in your club who can only use a particular pair of shoes (or can only use some of the shoes you have), either due to disability or simply due to having unusually large feet! Unless you're lucky enough to have a fleet where every footstretcher is interchangeable, you're stuck cutting (and re-heat-sealing) cords every time this person wants to row in a different shell. Either that or you use tied cords for training, and only fuse the knot when the boat is heading to a regatta, which defeats the point of the rule.
>
> (Also, I'm not certain that a permanent attachment, adjustable shoe height, and a safe maximum heel lift at all shoe heights can be combined. In my experience the fixed point which heel release cords attach to does not move when the height of the shoes is changed. Either the length of the cord is set to allow a safe amount of heel lift with the shoes at their highest point, in which case at their lowest point it will allow an unsafe amount, or it is set to allow a safe amount of lift at the lowest point, in which case at the highest point it may not allow enough lift to row. I may well be wrong on this, I'm trying to work out the relevant measurements in my head.)
Have you seen Carl's stretcher arrangement? I think it wasn't designed
with interchangeability in mind, but that's what it is.
The shoe is mounted to the plate, and the heel restrained fixed to the
bottom of the plate. To insert, you slide the plate with its height/rake
adjuster into the keel mount and rest it in the desired height on the
stretcher bar. Then you put on the center nut holding the plate to the
stretcher bar and tighten the bottom nut on the keel mount. Takes about
30 secs to remove one plate with shoes and put in another plate with
different shoes. And the heel restraint was never touched, so is still
as it left the factory.
>
> (Also, I'm not certain that a permanent attachment, adjustable shoe height, and a safe maximum heel lift at all shoe heights can be combined. In my experience the fixed point which heel release cords attach to does not move when the height of the shoes is changed. Either the length of the cord is set to allow a safe amount of heel lift with the shoes at their highest point, in which case at their lowest point it will allow an unsafe amount, or it is set to allow a safe amount of lift at the lowest point, in which case at the highest point it may not allow enough lift to row. I may well be wrong on this, I'm trying to work out the relevant measurements in my head.)
Have you seen Carl's stretcher arrangement? I think it wasn't designed
with interchangeability in mind, but that's what it is.
The shoe is mounted to the plate, and the heel restrained fixed to the
bottom of the plate. To insert, you slide the plate with its height/rake
adjuster into the keel mount and rest it in the desired height on the
stretcher bar. Then you put on the center nut holding the plate to the
stretcher bar and tighten the bottom nut on the keel mount. Takes about
30 secs to remove one plate with shoes and put in another plate with
different shoes. And the heel restraint was never touched, so is still
as it left the factory.
Message has been deleted
SingleMinded
Sep 15, 2015, 3:17:22 PM9/15/15
to
That is actually the ideal. I thought that this arrangement would solve the problem last night, but didn't know it actually existed. I wonder how easy it is to retrofit?
carl
Sep 15, 2015, 5:54:03 PM9/15/15
to
Our stretcher comprises:
1. Transverse carbon tube with conventional (Martinoli) moulded nylon
ends to engage with ditto side mounts. This tube has an M6 bolt passing
through & bonded into its mid-point. The nylon ends are cunningly
locked into the ends of the tube, yet free to rotate.
2. The stretcher board is a carbon/plywood laminate, with shoes directly
attached by the usual bolts & full depth to match the shoe heels. It
has a vertical row of height adjustment holes down its centreline,
through which the single bolt in the stretcher bar can pass.
3. The shoe heels are connected from the ring or loop in their heels to
the heel end of the same board by doubled 4mm braided-nylon
heel-restraint cords, each of which just passes through a suitably-sized
& placed hole in the stretcher board.
4. The ends which have passed through the board are made into a thumb
knot (English description) or half hitch, so placed to allow 50-52mm of
heel lift. The outboard end of that knot is then seared with a blow
torch so that it welds together without affecting the inboard end & so
that it cannot be removed. This knot is drawn up to the hole in the
stretcher board & held there (to prevent abrasion) by a splodge of
polyurethane mastic
5. The rake of the stretcher is infinitely adjustable over a good range
by extending a component which also connects the bottom of the stretcher
to a channel in the bottom of the boat. This component accommodates
adjustment of the shoe height when the stretcher board is moved to
another hole position on the stretcher bar's central bolt.
So, as well as providing you with shoes securely mounted, with heel
restraint cords in place, our stretcher allows you to move your shoes on
that board to any other boat fitted with the same stretcher system. It
is simple, effective & has fewer components than any other
fully-adjustable stretcher, so one wonders why others persist in the
separate shoe plate/separate stretcher-board system.
As ever, there are people trying to contort their way around a perceived
problem who fail to see there is a simpler system which already meets
their needs - & does so at a very reasonable price.
Take a look here:
http://www.carldouglasrowing.com/Shoes_Stretchers
Cheers -
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