Here's a handy rowing hack that has gone up a notch or two since we first featured it as the "Coxing Plank" Hack a few years back. Thanks to Michael Smith at East Bay Rowing in Rhode Island, we now have an even better version of this trick: The Souped-up Coxing Booster Seat.

The idea here? A stable platform that sits on the gunnels so that even if you don't have a coxswain-sized steersperson at a given practice, you can still get out for a row by creating a perch for a ninth rower, or even a coach, to get in the boat.

This hack can really come in handy at a masters club where the number of folks signed up for a session might not include an actual coxswain. The "booster seat" means that a coxswain who happens to be, well, rower-sized can comfortably sit on the stern of the shell, without having to squeeze into the seat, or sit sideways to fit.

You can make this hack work with just a plain board or, like we saw in the Coxing Plank Hack, by adding a sculling seat and butt pad, but Smith's version--padded saddle and all--turns this hack into a veritable throne for the selfless rower who volunteers to do the coxing so that their club mates can get out to row.

Closeup of this hack

Thanks to the bee logo and the regal 'roost' the booster creates, Smith calls his version of this hack the Queen Bee (or King Bee) depending on the which rower from the club elects to sit pretty atop the gunnels as "coxswain for a day."

According to Deb Sullivan, the President at East Bay, the comfy seat also means that a rower can cox with full blood circulation to the legs--which probably makes for more willing volunteers.

The "throne" in use...and a happy East Bay rower coxing with full blood circulation to the legs

Do you have a trick like this that helps make things work at your club? If so, share your ideas--and hacks--in the comments below.

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