Big weekend of championship racing coming up and, if your cheering section feels the need for "more cowbell" then here's the hack for you: The Racquet Ringer.

We spotted this back at the first Flicks of the season, where the Germantown Academy parents--and younger siblings--were taking cowbell-ing to a whole new level with a pair of old tennis racquets, some zip-ties, and bells of assorted sizes...in team colors, naturally.

If you're a crew parent with nothing to do between now and when the race comes by the tent in a few days, then you have plenty of time to build your own Racquet Ringer...and row2k will be out at race courses all over the country this weekend to see if we spot you with yours.

Gotta admit: it's a big improvement over solo-belling

Word of warning though, despite April Fool jokes to the contrary, the Racquet Ringer, as an artificial noise-maker, will not be welcome at the NCAA Rowing Championships--so if you are planning to cheer on a D1, D2, or D3 team that earns a bid to the NCAAs, this Ringer needs to stay home.

Rumor has it the last cowbell to sound during an NCAA final was back in 2007, but noise-makers of all types have been on the no-no list ever since, even if they are pretty cool hacks.

Do you have a slick trick for making sure your crews hear your support out on the race course? If so, share your tips--and hacks--in the comments below.

If you have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion, then please send it to us, and we will feature your idea in a future column.