AY Honors/Rowing

Rowing
Recreation
Skill Level 123
Approval authority General Conference	Year of Introduction 1956

• Overview
• Requirements
• Answer Key
• Lesson Plans

AY Honors/Rowing/Overview

The most challenging requirement of this honor is probably this:

4. Alone, or with the assistance of a person who is a swimmer, swamp rowboat, turn it right side up, get in, and with your hands or an oar, paddle it for 30 feet (9.1 meters). Tell why you should hang onto or get into a swamped rowboat.

1. Have the Intermediate Swimming honor.

2. With your instructor or counselor in stern, and without assistance, row properly the following:

a. A quarter of a mile on a straight course, stop, make a pivot turn, and return to the starting point.

b. Back water in a straight line 200 yards (182.9 meters). Make a turn under way, still backing water, and return to the starting point. (Feather after each stroke. Pin rowlocks must not be used.)

3. Demonstrate the following:

a. Properly launch and land a rowboat from and to shore.

b. Safely assist a person to and from a rowboat alongside a pier.

c. Tie a rowboat to a pier using each of the following:

4. Alone, or with the assistance of a person who is a swimmer, swamp rowboat, turn it right side up, get in, and with your hands or an oar, paddle it for 30 feet (9.1 meters). Tell why you should hang onto or get into a swamped rowboat.

5. Shove off from shore or pier alone in a rowboat, approach a swimmer, and maneu­ver so that the swimmer can be safely towed ashore.

6. Identify and describe a dory, dory skiff, dinghy, punt, and pram.

7. Identify and describe a tholepin rowlock, box rowlock, ring rowlock, and open top rowlock. Tell why pin-type rowlocks are not recommended.

8. What is the advantage of feathering oars while rowing?

9. How would you handle a rowboat in a sudden storm or high wind?

10. How would you calculate the weight that can be safely carried under normal con­ditions in any given boat under oars?

11. What lights are required on a rowboat at night, both with and without outboard motor?

12. Know how to properly fit out a rowboat, and maintain and care for it during the boating season. Know how to prepare and store the rowboat when not in use.

Edit Answer Key

1

Have the Intermediate Swimming honor.

For tips and instruction see Swimming - Intermediate.

2

With your instructor or counselor in stern, and without assistance, row properly the following:

2a

A quarter of a mile on a straight course, stop, make a pivot turn, and return to the starting point.

2b

Back water in a straight line 200 yards (182.9 meters). Make a turn under way, still backing water, and return to the starting point. (Feather after each stroke. Pin rowlocks must not be used.)

3

Demonstrate the following:

3a

Properly launch and land a rowboat from and to shore.

3b

Safely assist a person to and from a rowboat alongside a pier.

3c

Tie a rowboat to a pier using each of the following:

Clove hitch

Use: This knot is the "general utility" hitch for when you need a quick, simple method of fastening a rope around a post, spar or stake (like tying wicks to sticks in Candle Making) or another rope (as in Macramé) How to tie: Make a turn with the rope around the object and over itself. Take a second turn with the rope around the object. Pull the end up under the second turn so it is between the rope and the object. Tighten by pulling on both ends.

A: Turn
B: Round turn
C: Two round turns

A turn is a component of a knot. Turns can be made around objects, through rings, or around the standing part of the rope itself. Turns come in various forms, distinguished by the number of passes that the rope makes. A turn or single turn requires one pass. The line makes a U-shape through or around the object, or half a revolution. A round turn requires two passes and makes one and a half revolutions. Two round turns adds another pass and revolution.

Two half hitches
Use: This reliable knot is quickly tied and is the hitch most often used in mooring. How to tie: Pass end of rope around post or other object. Wrap short end of rope under and over long part of rope, pushing the end down through the loop. This is a half hitch. Repeat on long rope below first half hitch and draw up tight.

Bowline

Use: This knot doesn't jam or slip when tied properly. It can be tied around a person's waist and used to lift him, because the loop will not tighten under load. In sailing, the bowline is used to tie a halyard to a sail head. How to tie: Make the overhand loop with the end held toward you, then pass end through loop. Now pass end up behind the standing part, then down through the loop again. Draw up tight.

Halter hitch, Hitching tie

Use: The halter hitch, sometimes called a hitching tie is used to tie the lead rope, which is attached to a horse's halter (or to a boat), to a post or hitching rail. The benefit of the halter hitch is that it can be released by pulling on one end of the rope. Even if there is tension on the horse-side of the rope it can still be release with ease. How to tie: Pass the working end of the rope over the standing part. Pass the working end behind the loop. Create a bight in the working end of the rope. The bight is then passed in front of the main loop and into the second loop. Tighten the hitch by pulling on the standing end and the bight. The hitch can be finished by passing the working end through the bight.

4

Alone, or with the assistance of a person who is a swimmer, swamp rowboat, turn it right side up, get in, and with your hands or an oar, paddle it for 30 feet (9.1 meters). Tell why you should hang onto or get into a swamped rowboat.

5

Shove off from shore or pier alone in a rowboat, approach a swimmer, and maneu­ver so that the swimmer can be safely towed ashore.

6

Identify and describe a dory, dory skiff, dinghy, punt, and pram.

Dory

Strictly speaking, the only true defining characteristic of the dory is that it is planked up with wide boards, "It should be well understood, that it is the dory's special mode of construction, not its hull shape, that sets it, and its related sub-types apart from other boats"

More generally speaking, the dory can be defined as a small boat which has:

• a flat bottom, with the bottom planks fastened lengthwise (bow to stern).
• a hull shape defined by the natural curve of a sawn plank (never steam bent).
• planks overlapping the stem at the front of the boat and an outer 'false' stem covering the hood ends of the planks.
• (with some exceptions) a fairly narrow transom often referred to as the 'tombstone' due to its unique shape.

The hullform is characterized by a bottom that is transversely flat and sometimes bowed fore-and-aft. (This curvature is known as 'rocker'.) The stern is frequently a raked surface (a narrow transom) that tapers sharply toward the bottom forming a nearly double-ended boat. The traditional bottom is made from planks laid fore and aft and not transverse, although some hulls have a second set of planks laid over the first in a pattern that is crosswise to the main hull for additional wear and strength.

Despite their simplicity of design, dories are well known for their seaworthiness and rowing ease. Because of their narrow bottoms, they do not exhibit much initial stability and have often been called 'tippy'. They exhibit high ultimate stability, however, tipping to a point and then stiffening up significantly and resisting further rolling tendencies. Dories by design are quite voluminous and can carry a heavy load for their size and will continue to retain their great ultimate stability even when heavily loaded.

A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat of approximately 5 to 7 m in length. Lightweight and versatile, these boats are used in the open sea for commercial fishing applications, as well as in whitewater rafting on interior rivers. McKenzie River dory versions usually seat from two to four people including the oarsman.

Dory Skiff

The "dory skiff" is another variation of the dory type. For inshore work the transom was widened, freeboard was lowered and more rocker introduced into the bottom making an exceptionally easy-to-row boat that was more stable (initial stability not ultimate stability) than their offshore cousins. However they are not as seaworthy as the Swampscott or Banks dories.

There are many types of Dory boats sometimes named after the towns they were designed and built in. The term skiff is used, and has been used, to refer to many various types of seemingly unrelated small boats.

One current usage of skiff is to refer to a typically small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and a flat stern originally developed as an inexpensive and easy to build boat for use by inshore fishermen. Originally designed to be powered by rowing, their form has developed so that they are efficiently powered by outboard motors. The design is still in common use today for both work and pleasure craft.

Dinghy

A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor, but some are rigged for sailing. Because the smaller sailing dinghy responds more quickly to maneuvers, it is more suitable for beginner training in sailing than full-sized sloops.

Dinghies usually range in length from 2 to 6 meters. Larger auxiliary vessels are generally called tenders, pinnaces or lifeboats. Folding and take-down multi-piece (nesting) dinghies are used where space is limited. Some newer dinghies have much greater buoyancy, giving them more carrying capacity than older boats of the same size.

Punt

A punt

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.

Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling but in modern times their use is almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames.

Pram

A pram is a small utility boat with a squarish rather than pointed bow. This type of pram provides a more efficient use of space than does a traditional skiff of the same size.

7

Identify and describe a tholepin rowlock, box rowlock, ring rowlock, and open top rowlock. Tell why pin-type rowlocks are not recommended.

A rowlock (British, pronounced /ˈrɒlək/) or oarlock (US) is a brace that attaches an oar to a boat. When a boat is rowed, the rowlock acts as a fulcrum, and, in doing so, the propulsive force that the rower exerts on the water with the oar is transferred to the boat by the thrust force exerted on the rowlock.

On ordinary rowing craft, the rowlocks are attached to the gunwales. In the sport of rowing, the rowlocks are attached to outriggers (often just called "riggers"), which project from the boat and provide better leverage. In sport rowing, the rowlocks are normally U-shaped and attached to a vertical pin which allows the rowlock to pivot around the pin during the rowing stroke. They additionally have a locking mechanism across the top of the "U" to prevent the oar from unintentionally popping out of the rowlock.

Originally rowlocks were two wooden posts that the shaft of the oar nestled between.

thole pin, a wooden pin fixed in the gunwale of a rowing boat to which, by means of a grommet, an oar is held when it is being pulled. A more usual method is to use two thole pins close together, with the oar between them.

Pin locks are not recommended because the oar could pop out and if the rower lets go could drift away. So having a ring lock or a clamp on top of a u lock would make rowing safer.

8

What is the advantage of feathering oars while rowing?

There is less wind resistance (drag). This increases your speed and increases your endurance. It will also reduce the likelihood of catching a crab in rough conditions (that is, catching the blade on the surface of the water as you try to bring it forward for the next stroke).

9

How would you handle a rowboat in a sudden storm or high wind?

10

How would you calculate the weight that can be safely carried under normal con­ditions in any given boat under oars?

11

What lights are required on a rowboat at night, both with and without outboard motor?

12

Know how to properly fit out a rowboat, and maintain and care for it during the boating season. Know how to prepare and store the rowboat when not in use.

References

Rowing Safety Chapter 1-4 http://youtu.be/vVOCsfJna3Q Chapter 5 http://youtu.be/cmlpzKqJVEM Canadian Rowing Clubs (most offer lessons) http://rowingcanada.org/member-services/join-club

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