If you've ever raced at Princeton in the spring, or clicked through a row2k gallery from Carnegie, you've seen this Rowing Hack in action.

To number the lanes on the course for the visiting crews, each Princeton stakeboat has a small black trash can with big numerals on the sides. Meet the Lane Number Bucket Hack.

Tom Heebink, the longtime Boathouse Administrator at Princeton, came up with the idea and it's kinda genius: the trash cans are cheap, easy to see, and simple to put numbers on. Have a stiff head or tail wind? Just fill them up a bit with a little water from the lake and they'll stay put. Then, perhaps best of all, they store pretty neatly out of season, nested inside each other.

Maybe the slickest part is that these lane markers are portable, so they can easily go out the morning of, just for Race Day, and then get brought back after racing. That leaves one less thing outside on the stakeboats to weather in the sun and wind. In fact, the Carnegie Lake stakeboaters just bring the trash cans with them when they head out in the morning, along with a cozy beach chair.

Tom even made sure to put the numbers on all four sides of each trash can, so that coxswains approaching from both directions can get their lane right, and the officials can see the numbers clearly, too.

(While we are taking a look at the Princeton setup, those beach chairs are also pretty smart stakeboating gear: they give the volunteers a low profile seat, keeping the center of gravity low on the float, that is still comfy enough for a long wait on 15 minute centers).

Waiting out a 15 minute center in style, and with good cell service.

Do you have a cool Race Day set-up trick on your home course? 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 and we will feature your idea in a future column.