Feb

17

A Rowing Story, from Bill Rafter

February 17, 2009 |

Here is a funny rowing story with a market lesson. This is how the story was told to me; most assuredly some of it had been embellished. I take responsibility for the market-related comments:

In the sport of rowing there are eight different boats that are raced, five of which the rowers have one oar each. That’s called sweep rowing, as opposed to sculling, in which the rowers have two oars each. In the case of sweep rowing, the rowers are traditionally stacked alternatively on opposite sides: port, starboard, port, etc. In fact, prior to the early 1960s that was always the case. Here is a stylized diagram.

In Europe there are many rowing clubs, some of which are affiliated with companies. Just as an American company may sponsor a softball team, some European companies sponsor rowing teams. Such was the case with Moto Guzzi, a renowned maker of motorcycles and scooters located near Lake Como in northern Italy. In the early 60s the rowing club affiliated with Moto Guzzi had the Italian champion “straight four”, also known as a “four-without-coxswain” or “4-”. Each type of boat has a crew that could be typecast to fit it perfectly. A straight four is a beautiful boat that combines grace, speed and power, whereas some boats are best populated by refrigerators. (Aside: how do they steer without a coxswain? One of the rowers’ shoes is attached to a rudder.) These guys were good – very good. And they were soon to compete in the European Championships (the de-facto world championships) in Luzern.

After having traveled to a regional regatta, the crew was supposed to take the boat off the trailer and attach the riggers prior to the coach showing up and a practice. The riggers are the extensions outside the boat that hold the oarlocks – the boats themselves being very narrow for speed (lower resistance). Just horsing around the guys rigged the boat “wrong”. That is, instead of it being starboard, port, starboard, port, they rigged it port, starboard, starboard, port. Well, the coach was not amused, and said something like, “Okay you clowns; now you are going to have to row it that way. And we are doing a time trial, and if I don’t like your time, you’ll do it over until I do.” That’s what coaches typically say.

Well, they row the boat and had no difficulty with the different rig. During the time trial, they clock their best time ever. What happened? The coach knew he was out of his league, so he went down to see the mechanical engineers at Moto Guzzi and explained his problem. They immediately identified the effect as the “sum of the moments”, which I will illustrate below. But let’s first get back to the story.

The crew goes to Luzern, takes the boat off the trailer and starts rigging it “wrong”. Everyone who sees it howls. You can just hear the competitor comments now, “Hey, those crazy Italians don’t even know how to rig a boat. No sense worrying about them.” Well, you know what happens – the guys win the European Championships to everyone’s surprise. That style of rigging is subsequently referred to as “Italian Rigging” and has begotten all sorts of new rigs.

The thing to consider is that rowing has been around as a sport for a long time. For instance, the oldest intercollegiate athletic event in the U.S. is the Harvard-Yale boat race. But no one ever thought to try rigging a boat differently. An accidental event changes everything. Worse is that this watershed event occurred over 40 years ago, and still there are coaches in the sport who have no idea as to why someone would rig a boat differently. The worst are the typical coaches of college freshman, where most rowers get their introduction. You constantly hear expressions like, "Riggin, schmiggin, we just row."

Investment analysis is the same way. Too many people are stuck in ways that are unproductive. The analysts refuse to learn or to consider anything different. They don't read, experiment or learn. And the legal system is there to punish any experimental attempts that might underperform, albeit temporary. Anything learned becomes dogma no matter how bogus. Forgive me, but this reminds me of Markowitz, CAPM, etc.

Here’s why the rigging works: When you pull an oar (particularly a sweep), you not only move the boat ahead, but you pull the boat around to the opposite side (“pinch” the boat). The port rowers pull the boat to starboard, and vice-versa. So now think of a teeter-totter or see-saw, where the farther away one is from the fulcrum the more effect a given unit of power exerts. Where’s the fulcrum in a boat? The only thing under a boat’s hull is its fin to keep it from side slipping. That fin in most boats is about one person-length aft of the guy in the stern, and it is the fulcrum, albeit a weak one. So the guy in the stern is 1 unit away, the next guy 2 units, etc. If you add up the units you will find that the sides are equal in Italian rig, and are unequal otherwise. If everyone pulls with equal speed and force (highly unlikely), then the traditionally rigged boat will veer to one side, and the Italian rigged boat will not. The more course corrections that have to be made, the more drag exerted by the rudder. Hence the Italian rigged boat wins.

Rigging is one of those things that can make a big difference at the higher levels of the sport. However at lower levels of the sport the reason most crews lose is not rigging, so most coaches ignore it, and worse, do not bother to learn about it. I venture to say 95 percent of the boats never get their riggers adjusted after they are put on the boat initially. Yet not only can riggers be moved from seat to seat, but are fully adjustable in most other ways: height off the water, pitch, spread from the keel, etc. With choppy water, a little extra height off the water helps.

The style of rigging where two seats are on the same side is also called “in buckets.” Not sure why. But it is also possible to rig an 8-oared boat with 3 buckets, which is also balanced according to the sum of the moments, but has a distinct advantage for teaching novices. One problem with novices is that they “crab” or get the oar caught in the water, which plants their oar handle in the back of the person in front of them. Ouch. The pain could be lessened if eights were rigged in full buckets (P, S, S, P, P, S, S, P – for Port and Starboard) because of where the oar handle hits. Why novice coaches do not do this baffles me. I believe coaches think that rowing in buckets is more challenging that rowing a standard-rigged boat. Trust me, it takes about 30 seconds for a rower to adjust to it.

Oars used to be symmetric (tulip shaped). Now they have been improved (asymmetric and hatchet shaped) to really lock on to the water. The asymmetry also self-corrects for putting it in the water undersquared (crabbing). Note that the oars are not supposed to move thru the water – the boat moves thru the water. But with the old tulip (Macon) blades there was a certain amount of slippage. Now there is less. This has been the cause of an increase in lower back injuries. Something has to “give”, since there is less slippage when the oar is planted, that now becomes the lower back. The solution is to buy oars that have more spring to them, but you will find that only the oldtimers do that. The kids use stiff oars and have back injuries. Old rich guys cannot afford back injuries.

If you are coaching a crew and have the luxury of lots of boats, get them out of eights and into small boats. “People who know how to row, row small boats.” Also, the number one determinant of racing speed is stroke rate (strokes per minute). But your crew has to be in shape and skilled to row at high rates.

Dr. Rafter is President of Mathematical Investment Decisions, a quantitative research consultancy


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5 Comments so far

  1. Ken Drees on February 17, 2009 8:50 am

    Two clarifying questions please:

    If a squad is not equal in strength and skill, assuming you could pick a best and a worst out of the four, then how would they line up in the Italian rig? I am trying to ferret out the possible fact that maybe training rowers who are not skilled would be challenged more in this style.

    And two, if this style is so much better how come it is not used more often, as in markets winning tactics usually come to the fore and get duplicated?

    Thanks, and a very interesting post.

  2. Tristram on February 17, 2009 8:47 pm

    Bill.

    Great story. I have rowed this rigging before but only in an eight. We called it “spaghetti” rigged, now I know why. And you are right that it is a rigging style seldom used ( I saw it infrequently during my brief period as an oarsman).

    The steering part is important, but the fact that steering but the coxswain and the in the straight 4 must be done only when the oars are in the water or the boat will flap from side to side. In the straight four, it is a little more difficult because as you pointed out you use your foot which you torque to the right or left pivoting on the ball of your foot, in addition to looking around. In a straight four, my foot was almost always cranked in one direction during the stroke to keep the boat straight. A strong bowman needs to compensate ie. adjust power to keep the boat straight due to the advantage that you describe. This may account for the advantage the Italians experienced: more power due to less compensation in the bow.

    Rigging in general is fairly technical depending on the style. My coach wanted the oars closer to the water, and the length of the oars (from the oarlock to the blade) was adjusted based on whether you were in an eight (longer) or a four (a little shorter).

    Your technique also will vary with head, tail or crosswinds. In a head wind you want to feather at the last minute and let the wind push your blade into the water. Early feathering increases drag and reduces catch speed. In a tail wind, earlier feathering helps move the oar with less effort and energy so feathering a little early is less of an issue and makes the catches snappier.

    The old wooden oars had a certain way of flexing, a stiffness, where the newer carbon fiber oars from Concept 2 helped that flex work to your advantage by adding a little whip action at the finish of the stroke. The new “blade” oars are even more carefully designed for maximum water movement and placement.

    My old coach said he chose guys who picked up the wrong end of the oar: ergo, they saw the world differently from the conventional. The sport of rowing looks simple and rather easy, but like the market, there are many technical aspects, techniques and measurements that make everything from the oar, to the rigging length, angle and pitch (which was often accomplished with tape and Popsicle sticks) to the order in which various guys are seated, to hand speed and oar handling that all fit together to win races. This comes from experience and experimentation.

    In the market headwinds today, traders must adjust their timing, hand speed and wait to feather later in order to catch the trade at the right moment. Trying new things is difficult in stormy conditions, but careful oar work and a controlled slide offer balance and control. Experience, patience and strategy are key.

    If you don’t finish the race, you have no chance of winning….

  3. Bill Rafter on February 18, 2009 6:30 pm

    I challenge the statement that winning market strategies all get duplicated. Mostly what gets mimicked is the hokum dished out by authors who do not trade. Investors do not learn and regularly trade foolishly. Markowitz still gets trotted out as a reason for the investor to be 40 percent in bonds.

  4. Ken Drees on February 20, 2009 11:44 am

    Bill, I enjoyed your posts very much. And thanks for taking the time.

  5. Nate on June 7, 2009 7:50 pm

    I wish my coach would do this with my 4+… Most people stair at an Italian-rigged or even starboard-rigged shell as if it were the weird kid in class. My sister's boat had this done to it (8+) and most people looked at their boat strangely. Interesting how the shell steers straighter Italian-rigged though.

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