International Women’s Day - That is Why

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

Tim Koch writes:

Following today’s earlier post for International Women’s Day, the caption on the cover of the Rowing magazine of December 1960 is a reminder of why such a thing is necessary.

A Morning Row...

Today, on International Women’s Day, I though we should relax and watch a beautifully shot rowing video from South America. A woman setting out in a single scull in the morning from the club Grêmio Náutico União, which was founded in 1906 in Porto Alegre, in the south of Barzil. Enjoy!

Cover Your Flanks...

Michiel Jonkman sent HTBS a link to an incredible ‘old’ race from 1990 that I must confess I have totally forgotten. Lesson to be learned? Don’t forget to cover the flanks! That goes for both the athletes and sport commentators. Over to the 1990 World Championships in Tasmania, men’s lightweight double sculls:

Rowing is Passion

Here is a nice promotional video for youth rowing and sculling. Very nicely done...

Think Summer!

I know that summer seems far away, but I would like to think that reading about a summer activity might help us all to go through the bitter season we are in right now. Here is what R.P.P. Rowe and C.M. Pitman write in Rowing (1898; Badminton Library) about sculling for ‘the would-be sculler’:

‘First, don’t strap your feet in too tightly, as you may find it difficult to get them out if you have to swim for it. Secondly, hold on to both sculls and don’t let go, as you will  thus considerably lessen the problem of an upset. Thirdly, take very short strokes at first; you can reach out further as you gain confidence. Fourthly, if you give a big lurch and think that a spill is imminent, stop sculling, try to put your blades flat on the water, and get the handles of your sculls as near to one another as possible. Fifthly, make your first attempt in the summer, when the water is warm and pleasant to swim in. Sixthly, if you upset in the Cam, send your clothes to the wash.’

THINK SUMMER!

Up the Creek with an Oar

In the September issue of Down East, which calls itself ‘The Magazine of Maine’, there is a nice little article about the old oar and paddle making company Shaw & Tenney in Orono, Maine. The company was founded in 1858 and today has seven workers who hand-make all the products: oars, paddles, masts, spars, flag poles, and parts for canoes, kayaks and Adirondack guide boats, etc.

I had, of course, heard about the company before, but it was first when I began looking around for a pair of sculls that I spent some time on Shaw & Tenney’s website – lovely stuff. I did not buy a set of sculls from the company this time as, in a round about way, I came across some used sculls.

While the company sells mainly oars and paddles to be used on an outing, so to say, they have also started to sell ‘engraved paddles’. One of the latest ones of this kind was actually sold to Paul McCartney’s children who wanted to order an engraved paddle for their father for his birthday. Shaw & Tenney has also sold props to different films, Virginia M. Wright writes in her article in Down East.

One of the problems for a small company as Shaw & Tenney, the article tells us, is that the company does not have a large inventory, as it hand-crafts oars and paddles more or less ‘on demand’. One big order for the company was when another Maine based company, L.L. Bean, ordered 500 paddles because of the company’s 100-year anniversary this year.

If you are looking for a first-class, handcrafted pair of sculls for your boat, Shaw & Tenney is probably the company for you! Here is a video from the company:



The photograph on top is from Shaw & Tenney's website.

A Silver Or A Bronze Or The Potato Medal?

Synek, Drysdale, and Campbell - three happy Olympic medallists?

Yesterday, in the A final of the men’s single sculls at the Olympic Regatta at Eton Dorney, Mahé Drysdale (NZL) took the gold medal, Ondřej Synek (CZE) took the silver, and Alan Campbell (GBR) took the bronze. Lassi Karonen (SWE) came in fourth. Of course, as a Swede, I wanted Karonen to grab a medal in this exciting race, but alas he and the rest of us rowing interested Swedes have to be satisfied with what the Danes call Kartoffel Medalje, the Potato Medal. This is probably the most unwanted place in a rowing final, in that you are so very close to an Olympic medal, but after all the hard work, you get Nothing!

Let’s have a look at these scullers’ times:

M. Drysdale 6:57.82
O. Synek 6:59.37
A. Campbell 7:03.28
L. Karonen 7:04.04

At least between Campbell and Karonen it was a close race at the finish line.

Yesterday on the American radio station NPR, its science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, made an interesting observation regarding the ‘happiness’ of winning a silver or a bronze. Scientists have done research that proves that silver medallists are ‘unhappy’ with their performances while bronze medallists are ‘happy’. Read the article and listen to the story here.

So, did Campbell look happier than Synek at the prize ceremony? I don’t know, but Campbell was very pleased, no doubt about it. After all, he nearly won the unwanted Kartoffel Medalje but did not.

Congratulations to the three medallists!

Update 5 August, 2012: A good-hearted man, the British bookshop owner David Mitchell, has taken the matter into his own hands and solved it this way!

Tim Koch On The Scullers Head And An Interesting Sign...

HTBS's Tim Koch reports from London:

The 58th Vesta Scullers Head of the River Race was held on Saturday 3 December over the 4.25 mile championship course from Mortlake to Putney in London. It claims to be ‘...the largest single-division processional single sculls race in the world’. First held in 1954, this year’s race involved 500 scullers and attracted entries from the United Kingdom and abroad, with standards ranging from internationals to novices. The conditions were good and some fine racing was had. The results are here.

Those who followed my recent report on the Wingfield Sculls will notice that first place in both events went to Adam Freeman-Pask of Imperial College. He beat Wingfields opponent Henry Pelly by just over a second, even after he received an unspecified time penalty for ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’.

(Click on photo to enlarge)

While standing on Hammersmith Bridge to take photographs of the scullers, I reread a charming enamel sign dating from 1914 that I had seen many times before. It lists the ‘Thames And Other Bridges By-Laws’. A by-law is a local law passed under the authority of a higher body, in the United States they are called ‘ordinances’. The ‘higher authority’ that confirmed these particular laws was ‘R McKenna, One of His Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State. Whitehall, 28th May 1914’. The significance of this to rowing geeks is that Reginald McKenna (1863-1943) was a member of the Trinity Hall (Cambridge) eight that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley in 1886 and the four that won the Stewards’ Challenge Cup in 1887. Trinity Hall also won the Grand, Thames, Ladies’ and Visitors’ in ‘87. Also in that year, R McKenna was at bow in the winning Cambridge crew in the University Boat Race. Having Steve Fairbairn as a coach probably helped in these achievements but McKenna was clever enough to work some things out for himself. ‘Wat Bradford’, the author of the Wikibook, The Rowers of Vanity Fair states:

“In securing the 1887 victories, the club history (H. Bond: A History of the Trinity Hall Boat Club; 1930) credits McKenna with teaching the crews to use long slides, as de Havilland would do at Eton several years later:

‘[McKenna] thought out the whole theory of rowing afresh for himself, being helped not a little by his knowledge of physics. Sooner than anyone at the Hall he realised that the Jesus crews were on the right lines in adopting the long 15-inch slide... the official style at the Hall, with a succession of Etonian captains, was still the Etonian short slide with the emphasis on “beginning” and body swing, and it was not till ‘86 that the long slide won its way into general use.’”

‘Bradford’s’ full take on McKenna is here.

In his political life, McKenna served in two of the three highest offices of state. He was Home Secretary (Attorney General) from 1911 to 1915 and Chancellor of the Exchequer (Secretary of the Treasury) from 1915 to 1916. After the 1914-1918 War, McKenna left politics and became the Chairman of Midland Bank. In this role he made the following observation:

“I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people.”

This is frighteningly relevant to the current ‘credit crisis’. It seems that the man understood rowing and money.

Bravo Emory!

Now, this is my kind of a guy, Emory Lang, who sculls three times a day at Miami Beach. Oh, you think that he is in training for the Olympic Games in London next year? Well, not really. However, if there where a boat class 90+, he could. Emory is 90-year-young, and began to row 25 years ago. It just proves that you can start rowing at any age. Bravo Emory!

Here is a link, with a video clip showing Emory sculling!

Nestle's 1938 Rowing Cards, Part 2

As I wrote in yesterday's entry, I won a set of Nestle's Rowing Cards of 1938 on eBay two weeks ago. Above you will see the rest of the cards in the set. While the one's from yesterday showed the difference between the Fairbairn 'style' and the 'old' English orthodox style, these cards show the different boat types: single scull; coxed pair; eight; coxed four; and double scull. It might actually be 'orthodox v. Fairbairn' that is shown in the two cards on top. Steve Fairbairn, who was the coach who more or less came up with 'Fairbairnism', never regarded his method of rowing as a 'style'.

It might interest the readers of HTBS, that Nestle also published a set of rowing cards in 1937.

Buy Rowing Stuff!

Now and then, we look for something special to buy that has to do with rowing: new sculls, a fancy rowing tie, a new rowing book, a new rowing kit, etc. To help you out, I have added a new feature on the right, Buy Rowing Stuff, with links to different companies that are selling 'stuff' for rowers. More companies will be added after time. I would like to mention that none of these companies have in any way paid me or given me 'stuff' to be listed here. I have no association with any of them, and I will in no way take any responsibility for 'faulty' merchandise.

'Diamond' is forever...

According to the paper Pune Mirror in India, the College of Engineering, Pune, Boat Club has the only wooden single scull left in the country. The boat, H M Ganesh Rao, is more than 50 years old, the paper writes. In the article, the boat is called 'a diamond scull', which, the paper states, "probably derives its name from the 'Diamond Challenge Sculls', a rowing event for men's single sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames in England".

The boat club, which has organised an annual regatta since 1928 on the Mula River, plan to row the H M Ganesh Rao in the regatta on 13 March. 100 students are participating, not only in rowing, but other water games, too. Read the nice article by clicking here.

History Of Australian Rowing

In an e-mail earlier today, Sam Golding in Melbourne kindly reminds me about Andrew Guerin’s and Margot Foster’s History of Australian Rowing. He writes that Guerin and Foster “set out historical Australian results and world and Olympic race results with brief descriptions of races. It is fantastic as a resource.”

I certainly agree. They have done a tremendous work, and I am ashamed to say that their eminent rowing history site had slipped my mind. From now on, the HTBS readers will find a link to History of Australian Rowing on the right under ‘Good Rowing Links’. My thanks to Sam Golding ‘Down Under’ for pointing it out.

Portuguese Rowing History

I have come to understand that blogs on rowing history are a rare thing. If you google ‘blogs’ and ‘rowing history’, you will come up with only a few, and some of them are old and had their last entries in 2008 or 2009. Therefore, I was very pleased to find an active blog, Remo Historia [Rowing History], which is run by Carlos Henriques in Lisbon, Portugal. It has some very nice old photographs of oarsmen, crews, and prizes, etc. From now on, you will find a link on the right to Remo Historia. If your Portuguese is a little rusty, like mine, Google has a translation ‘box’ that would give you a rough translation of what Carlos is writing.

Smiling Scullers

It has been pointed out to me that some of the entries that have been posted on HTBS also have ended up on a Greek rowing blog called ROWING ΚΩΠΗΛΑΣΙΑ KOPILASIA. I do not mind sharing, and I guess that is why I am not ashamed to say that I have borrowed the two following photographs from the Greek blog.

Rowing naked makes perfectly sense if you have read Rob Hamill’s book The Naked Rower (2000) which is about the first ‘modern’ Atlantic Rowing Race in 1997, which Hamill won together with his fellow New Zealander Phil Stubbs.

While I therefore understand the smile of the sculling lady above, I really do not comprehend why the fellow in the wrecked single is smiling – you just destroyed a beautiful boat, you fool!

The Finalists In The Diamonds

For the first time in the history of The Diamond Challenge Sculls, a Swede, Lassi Karonen (Brudpiga Roddklubb), will be in the final of this event. Karonen (see picture) will meet the 2009 holder of the Diamonds, Mahe Drysdale (West End Rowing Club) of New Zealand. Drysdale, who is a four-time world champion in the single, will of course be a hard nut to crack for the 34-year old Swede, but everything can happen during a final at Henley.

10 Top Events For Rowers At WBS

As I have mentioned before, The 19th Annual WoodenBoat Show will start tomorrow, Friday 25 June and run for three days, 25-27 June, at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. The museum and the show will be open between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. More information can be found by clicking here.

Allow me to pick out ten events, vendors, and places that you rowers should go to if you are visiting the WoodenBoat Show this weekend:

#1 National Rowing Hall of Fame & rowing exhibit ‘Let Her Run’ – a thrilling place.

Time 9:00-5:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: G.W. Blunt White Building (No. 54)

#2 Mystic Seaport’s Boat and Engine Collection – see the National Rowing Foundation’s wonderful collection of racing shells.

Time 2:30-4:30, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Rossi Mill Loading Dock

#3 Paddle and Oar Making.

Time: 2:30, Sunday.

Location: Paint Shed, Shipyard

#4 Mystic Seaport Museum Bookstore – great selection on rowing books.

Time: 9:00-6:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Opposite the Museum’s Main Gate

#5 Rowboat Rentals – get out on the Mystic River.

Time: 10-4:30, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Boathouse (No. 13)

#6 Adirondack Guide Boat – vendor.

Time: 9:00-5:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Tent A.

#7 Connecticut River Books – vendor, good selection of old, used books on rowing.

Time: 9:00-5:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Tent B.

#8 Norseboat Sailing & Rowing Cruises – vendor.

Time: 9:00-5:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Village Green Exhibits.

#9 WoodenBoat Store – vendor, has published some books on rowing.

Time: 9:00-5:00, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Tent A.

#10 From ‘Whale Ho’ To ‘Find Out’ Whaleboat Demonstration.

Time: 11:00 a.m., Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Location: Middle Wharf (No. 27), if rain, Whaleboat Shed (No. 34)

New Book Down Under

There exist very few doctor’s dissertations about rowing, and even fewer of them have been published outside the sphere of academia to be available to and reached by the common public who are interested in oarsmanship. While I enjoyed Susan Saint Sing’s thesis about the Navy crew that went to the 1920 Olympics to take a gold medal in the eights, much thanks to their coach Glendon, I was disappointed by her populist version that came out in 2008 with the title The Wonder Crew: The Untold Story of a Coach, Navy Rowing, and Olympic Immortality. Although the Navy eight was exceptionally good, I am having a hard time buying how wonderful, amazing, outstanding, unmatched this ‘underdog’ crew was, according to Sing. To me the outstanding crew, which I hope someone will eventually write a story about, was actually the British Leander eight that came in second in the Olympic eight final.

Last year, another dissertation on rowing, this time about professional sculling, was published, Sculling and Skulduggery: A History of Professional Sculling by Stuart Ripley, who completed his thesis on this subject in 2003. This book is mainly about professional sculling in Australia and the Australian scullers who were among the best of the international best for many years in this sport. It began with Edward Trickett becoming the first sculling world champion in 1876. Not only was Trickett Australia’s first world champion in rowing, his was his country’s first world champion, period! Other Australian sculling stars and world champions were William Beach, Peter Kemp, Henry Searle, Jack McLean, James Stanbury, George Towns, and in more ‘modern’ time, Alf Felton, James Paddon, Major Goodsell, Bobby Pearce, Evans Paddon, G. Cook, J. Saul, and E. Fischer- a very impressive list! And so is also Ripley’s book.

Sculling and Skulduggery is published by Walla Walla Press in Sydney. Richard Way’s Bookshop in Henley-on-Thames carries the book.

About Rowing

Let us pretend that you know nothing about rowing, but would like to get information about the sport as you are thinking of taking it up for recreational purposes, or even having a go at racing in regattas. Naturally, of course, you would go to your country’s rowing federation’s website to see what kind of information you can obtain.

Just for fun that is what I did; I began with USRowing’s website where you will find the link ‘About the sport’, which has the following sub-links: Viewer's Guide; Rowing Quick Facts; Glossary of Rowing Terms; Eleven Insights to the Sport of Rowing; Sweep Rowing Vs. Sculling; Rowing Classifications; Equipment; The Race; The Stroke; Race Watching Tips; and Rowing Lingo.

Then I went to the British federation’s website, British Rowing, where there also is a link about the sport, called ‘About rowing’. Here you will find the following sub-links: Get into Rowing; Types of Rowing: Fine, Adaptive, Coastal, Indoor, Ocean, Pilot Gigs, Recreational, Surf, Veteran; Rowing Basics; Water Safety; Rowing & Health; Types of Competition; Rowing Stroke; Image Conscious; History; Rowing Diary; News; Frequently Asked Questions; and Charity Events.

Both websites have valuable information about (sweep) rowing and sculling. Though it might be that you will find the same information under different links, and some 'rowing lingo' might be a little different between American English and British English ('two countries divided by the same language' as it was wisely said...). The main difference is that in Great Britain, and other European countries as well, there are different types of rowing which you will not find in the US. I find it odd that Coastal and Surf rowing have not caught on in the US yet.

I leave it to you readers to click on the sub-links to compare the two sites and their sub-links.

The photographs are taken from the two sites!

The Kellys & Jack Beresford At Corbis

To continue on Tim's marvellous find, corbisimages.com I went through a lot of images searching both this and that. I found some great photographs of Jack Kelly, Sr., and Jack Kelly, Jr., ('Kell'), and some pics with the most beautiful member of their family, Grace Kelly. In one of her first stage performances, in the theatre programme there was more facts about her brother Kell's first victory in the Diamonds at Henley Royal Regatta 1947 than about her. (Well, that would change a couple of years later.)

The three famous Kellys, pic No. 1 No. 2

I found a few photographs of Kelly, Sr's British rival, my rowing hero, Jack Beresford, Jr., too. Here is one from 1925. To see the photograph, click here.