CONTROLLING YAW IN A PAIR ROWING BOAT

Abstract

Efficiency in propelling a rowing boat is important in competitive rowing as, for a given power output from the rower, the more efficient the rower is the faster the boat will go for a given power output. One factor that may influence the efficiency is the pointing direction of the boat and how well this is maintained directly towards the finish line. Rudder corrections or movement off this line increases the water drag. The balance of forces acting on the boat in the horizontal plane contribute to the moment acting on the boat around a vertical axis. To measure this effect a pair boat was instrumented to measure the velocity of and the major horizontal plane forces acting on the boat. Five male el'ite pair crews rowed the pair boat maximally at 32 strokes per minute. Individual differences were seen in the net angular impulse imparted to the boat and these were correlated with rowing efficiency. Thus the minimisation of angular impulse is an important aspect of pair rowing technique.