A Time to Rig and a Time to De-Rig

With spring racing season comes frequent de-rigging and re-rigging of your racing shells. Coxswains who are attentive and efficient make trailer loading and rigging safer, easier, and faster for everyone and set themselves up for the best possible arrival on race day.

First, de-rigging. This is a good time to take stock of your tools and ensure that you have the wrenches you need to get the boat de-rigged efficiently. If your rowers are standing around waiting for tools consistently, this means it’s high time to ask the coach to pick up a few more wrenches. It’s also an opportune time to take inventory of all the hardware on your boat—bolts, nuts, washers, wing nuts, spacers. Make sure that each seat has the full complement of parts and that you have a few spares, too. 

Check the boat for damage: dings and scratches on the hull, bent backstays or pins, seat wheels that can’t spin, loose tracks, and foot stretchers that aren’t seated properly. If you notice a larger issue with the rigging, like inconsistent placement of washers or backstays, gather your rowers to clarify how the hardware should look on the boat after it’s rigged.

Know your team’s system for where hardware and seats go (securely fastened on the boat or in a separate container) so  you’re confident these will arrive safely and you’ll know where to find everything once you get to the racecourse. It may or may not be your official job to ensure that riggers, oars, and slings get on the trailer, but you should always check. After all, you can’t race without the necessary equipment.

When loading a trailer or putting boats in slings, be mindful of the safety of the hull. You’ve probably heard that most damage to boats happens on land. If you’re maneuvering your boat in a tight space during trailer loading, ask another coxswain to watch the bow if you’re with the stern, and vice versa.

Always, always make sure slings are pushed all the way out at the base. Best practice: Roll your boat to waists and slide the slings underneath it rather than roll it down into slings and risk putting the corner of a sling through the hull. (It happens, and it’s not pretty!)

If it’s windy, you’ll want to keep extra hands on the boat at all times until the hull is safely in the boathouse or strapped down on the trailer. You should also be skillful strapping a boat to a trailer. If not, practice. Most teams have coxswains or rowers who are designated boat-strap experts; shadow them and ask them to inspect your work until you’re confident of your ability.

If you’ve de-rigged properly and organized and loaded the trailer well, unloading and rigging should be easy. Sometimes you’ll find a bolt or rigger that doesn’t fit on the boat properly. Don’t force it! While some boats might need a little bit of a squeeze to get parts back on, more likely this indicates that you’re installing the hardware in the wrong place or that something shifted in transit. Call over a coach for help.

After your boat is rigged, go over each seat carefully and check everything that could come loose. While your rowers may rig the boat, you should check every station before each race. Like a  pilot performing a pre-flight inspection, you want to make sure you’re ready for racing.

Get the small things right, too. Regatta sites are often full of  mud, gravel, or sand, so if you have boat covers or bags, make sure the insides stay off the ground and are free of dirt and debris so your boats won’t get scratched. If you drop hardware in the mud, rinse or wipe it off so grit doesn’t get stuck in bolt threads.

At some programs, coxswains are involved heavily with rigging and help coaches set oars and even spread the boat. You don’t need to know every skill but you should know all the parts of a boat so you can describe equipment problems accurately to facilitate solutions. A pin or collar shifting around on the water is an immediate issue your coach needs to address off the water; a loose backstay is a problem you can handle quickly yourself.

Trailer-load days are a great way to assume a leadership role in a way that’s visible and meaningful to your team and coaches. Take charge with enthusiasm and you’ll show up at the regatta site confident that you and your team have everything you need to succeed. 

Hannah Woodruff is an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Radcliffe heavyweight team. She began rowing at Phillips Exeter Academy, was a coxswain at Wellesley College, and has coached college, high-school, and club crews for over 10 years.

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