Got bent back stays? Well, Ben Chang at Whitmarsh Boat Club has a hack for that: use a pipe bender to un-bend them and put them back to work.

As Ben puts it, "bent back stays with no evidence of cracks or metal fatigue can be 'rehabilitated.'"

His hardware of choice is a re-purposed HVAC installers tool: the Vevor Ratcheting Tubing Bender. It's not cheap, at $70 or so, but your savings with those rehabilitated back stays can add up quick--especially if you run a big program that dings up its fair share.

They call Whitemarsh's un-bender "The Persuader"--which some older Rowing Hacks might remember as the go-to nickname for the often hand-made rigger adjusting tools used in the old days, back when pitch adjustments required bending the rigger altogether. Good to see that maybe the best tool name ever is still doing good work out there.

Ready to start rescuing back stays instead of replacing them? Here are Ben's tips on this trick:

Use a pipe bender that can accommodate 3/4" pipe. Start with the widest guide so that you can straighten long curves without kinking the back stay. Start with the middle of the sharpest curve. Center the apex of the curve on the center of the pipe bender.

Squeeze the ratcheted handle until the curve is flattened.

Move up and down the back stay to the next sharpest curve and unbend each one. You may have to switch to a narrower guide for curves that cover a shorter segment of back stay. You are done when you can roll the back stay (fairly) smoothly on a flat surface. Check to make sure there are no cracks or signs of metal fatigue before installing the reconditioned back stay.

Here's a little Before and After that Ben sent along of a recent rehab job.

Do you have a good way to save on spare parts at your boathouse? 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 Ben did and we will feature your idea in a future column.