Need some advice in making a pair go straight..

[Ted209]

Hey all, I have been training in a 2- lately, and everything is going very well (It is actually feeling better than some of our eights in terms of everything but speed). However, we have one problem which ruins everything. I am in the bow seat and row on bow side, but my partner pulls me around a fair bit especially at the start of a race/piece. Basically I end up exhausted and my partner has barely broken a sweat. He is about 20 seconds faster than me on the erg over 2k but I am much lighter so not sure if that makes too much of a difference, weight adjusted scores are very similar.

I am starting to think that this problem has got something to do with the way the boat is rigged. Using foot steering or changing the oar gearing is practically out of the question, so I was thinking it may help if i moved my feet back a small portion while my partner moves his forward? I feel this may work as I heard the closer you are to the bow the easier it is for you to turn the boat, so I figured me moving to the bow and my partner moving away from it would help.

I would try it myself but I want to get some other opinions instead of just doing it and wasting time messing with the foot stretchers only to find it wouldn't work.

Also, any other suggestions to fix this problem are welcome, as long as they do not have a huge effect on the rigging of the boat as other people at the club share the same boat.

[jamesg]

Try a double, if your heights are about the same. Otherwise the only way is to put a kink in the skeg.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Weight adjusted score doesn't matter. You are rowing at the same spm in the same boat, so he is much more powerful - it is only to be expected that he's going to pull you around all day. 20 seconds is a huge difference in erg score over 2k.

You can try moving his foot stretcher toward the bow and yours toward the stern. You could also tell him to row w/o layback/a shortened stroke.

You could even experiment with clams or with changing the outboard of his oar.

But at the end of the day the two of you just aren't a good match for the 2-.

I rowed a 2- with someone 23 seconds faster than me on the 2k. It was always quite the experience. He never broke a sweat, I always pulled as hard as possible. We went straight though. Your partner just needs to ease up on his rowing. It's a team sport.