THE HISTORY AND BENEFITS OF SLIDING SEAT ROWING

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alfred N. Punnett, The Yale/Harvard rowing race of 1870 marked aturning point in rowing technology. The Yale oarsmen appeared wearing greased leather pants! Upon boarding their craft they locked their feet in place and slid back and forth on smooth wooden planks, incorporating leg power into their rowing stroke and increasing the arc of the oars.They won handsomely. The following year thesliding (rolling) seat was introduced and is still used exclusively by all racing sculling craft.The first Whitehall to utilize the sliding seat is not documented. But the Mystic Seaport Museum in its collections of small rowboats has a beautiful 16'9" model built in Boston in 1879 with a sliding seat for the oarsman on a set of runners extending over the centerboard marine case. Sliding seat rowing differs from traditional oars-on-the-gunnel rowing in many ways. The length of the oars (called “sculls” on a sliding seat unit) are longer, and the distance between the oarlocks (called pins) and height of the seat have become standard measurements. The distance between the pins is extended past the beam of the sailboat boat with hinged extensions called outriggers. Whitehall Rowing and Sail’s models areidentical in slide seat and pin to pin dimensions to a racing shell. These outriggers are made of tough cast silicon bronze and boat hinge inboard and out of the way when not in use. A sliding seat enables the power of both legs to be utilized. The power of both legs greatly increases the force of the stroke and quickly brings the boat up to speed while the back and arms are used for the follow through. Here is a brief description of a complete stroke.The scull enters the water at the “catch” and the legs smoothly begin to straighten, the arms are straight, the back forward. When the legs are halfway extended the back begins to straighten. Finally just as the legs fully extend the arms pull the last of the stroke, and marine lift the blades clear of the water, called the “release”. The rower uses his fingers to roll the “grip” and the blade is flattened or “feathered”, arms straightened and the return slide is commenced.The shaft of a rowing oar is “D” shaped. Duringthe pull the flat side lies against the oarlock post and feathers flat as the grip is rolled for the return stroke. By adjusting the angle of the oarlock post the blade entry angle, called the “pitch”, can be adjusted slightly. This fine tunes the stroke for the depth of the blade. The benefits of slide seat rowing are many but thegreatest is in the area of health and exercise. Almost all of the body’s muscles are utilized but without the high impact on specific joints encountered in activities such as tennis or jogging. Excessive knee strain is eliminated because both legs are used simultaneously. The calorie burn is also double that of jogging with a fraction of the stress. Rowing is good for relaxing the mind and refreshing one’s mental perspectives.Whitehall Rowing & Sails’ stable seaworthy designs offer even more benefits than a rowing shell.The Whitehall Spirit 14 and Tyee Spirit 14 and theWestcoast each accommodate one sliding seat unit. TheWhitehall Spirit 17, though easily handled by one rower, accommodates two sliding seat stations. 34