Sometimes, your trusty Rowing Hackers get their inspiration from the season, so even walking through the Holiday Decor section at the local Lowe's or Home Depot at this time of year can get a Hacker thinking about some cool tricks for the boathouse.

Take the humble holiday lights timer... could be a slick way to help keep your cox boxes on-charge without overcooking them, and--since we like to save money while we hack--don't forget that all those light timers will be on sale in just a few short weeks when stores are off-loading all their unsold holiday swag.

Why bother putting your cox box charging station on a timer? Well, if your boxes do one outing a day and then get plugged right back in, that's probably a good 21-22 hours of charging time--which is *just* a few hours more than you really need to top off the charge.

The light timer can insure that the charging happens for just long enough to have the cox boxes fully primed, and you can even set it to charge them in that 2 to 3 hour window right before the first crews launch.

Sure, you can probably hack this problem in a few other ways--from a trickle charger to, these days, a smart plug that you program on an app--but an on-sale, dead-cheap, old-school light timer? That's the kind of hacking we like to see...and bonus points if the timer you use is a good holiday color--like deep green--so it is clear to all that this is a Rowing Hack at work.

If you have a cool hack for keeping your cox boxes charged up and ready to row, then share your tips--and hacks--in the comments below.

Have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion here? Send it to us!