Technical Terms

Rowing: The sport itself - Going out in any boat either sweeps or scull (or on an erg).
Rowing/Rowers: Specifically sweep oar rowing when each person has only one oar.
Sculling/Scullers: Rowing when each person has two small oars, one in each hand. Sculling boats are all designated with an ‘X’ e.g. a Double scull is a 2X
Cox (coxswain, Coxie): the person who is responsible for steering & motivating a crew. They sit at either end of the boat (depending on the boat) & steer with a rudder. All boats with Coxes are designated with a ‘+’ e.g. 4+ is a coxed four.
Novice: People in their first year of the sport of rowing.
Boats - Eight: Rowing boat with 8 rowers & a Cox (Designated as an 8+)
Four: Rowing boat with 4 rowers & a Cox (Designated as a 4+)
Quad: Sculling boat for 4 people – (usually with a coxswain designated as a 4X+)
Double: Sculling boat for 2 people (Designated as a 2X)
Single: Sculling boat for 1 person (Designated as a 1x)
Pair: Rowing boat with 2 rowers
Erg: Indoor rowing machine used for testing & instruction.
Oars Oar/Blade: Generic term for both rowing & sculling Oars. Made from carbon fibre (rowing Oars are 3.86m long. Sculls only 2.9m).
Sweep: Rowing with one long Oar (often the oar itself is referred to as a sweep)
Scull: A shorter and lighter oar used two at a time when sculling
Rigger: Metal arm attached to the outside of the boat to give rowers extra leverage.
Slides: Metal runners that the seat slides upon.
Gate: Plastic swivel which holds the oar at the end of the riggers.
Foot stretcher: (Feet) Moveable fixture across the hull of the boat which has shoes attached
Seat: Wooden seat which runs on bearings up and down the slides in the boat.
Position in the Boat (All Boats are numbered from the Bow – with bow as 1.)
Bow: The front of the Boat - The Bow is the person in 1 seat
Bow Side is the right-hand side (starboard) of the boat when facing the bow
Stern: The Back of a boat (last to cross the line) where the Cox sits in most boats.
Stroke: The Action part of the stroke - the Person in the stern of the boat. Stroke side is the left hand (Port) side of the boat
Rating: Number of strokes taken per minute. A training rate would be 18-24spm while a top racing crew will average 44+spm.
Split: Time takes to travel 500m (500m splits for schoolboys’ range between 1:50 and 2:40 over a 1000m erg.)