A controversial but revolutionary new way to rig racing eights turned heads at the San Diego Crew Classic this past weekend, with the USC and Texas varsity women and Cal, Stanford and Penn men all sporting the so-called "Straight Rig," whereby the stroke oar is placed on port, and the rowers then alternate port/starboard all the way down the boat.
"We had our battleship and triple-buckets going at the boathouse," said Stanford's Craig Amerkhanian. "Then I remembered a rig I'd seen in a photo when we were at the Head of the Charles a few years back. That boat, a pretty successful crew if I recall, had a rig that was port-stroked and had the guys just paired up on port and starboard. I just turned to my freshman coach and said, 'What the heck, let's try it!'"
New Texas coach O'Neill concurred, though he acknowledged that bucket rigs can have their benefits. "If I bucket up, I can save time during video review by coaching a bucket like they are one person. Way easier!"
Not everyone was sanguine about this new development. "I don't approve," said Cambridge University Mathematics Don Hugo Muggerwell-Foggybottom. "Our research has demonstrated that the best rig is still one that makes it really difficult to do drills and row by pairs or fours. With this straight rig, all the maths is off!"
Penn's Greg Myhr seemed excited about the new rig as well. "This has been good for us," Myhr said. "Although, we have found that, no matter how we rig it, we always still end up with a three-seat."
Look for the revolutionary "straight rig" at a regatta near you this spring!
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