26 March 2024
By Ralf-Peter Stumme & Göran R Buckhorn
The Boat Races between the Oxford and Cambridge men and women will soon be upon us.
A few days ago, Ralf-Peter Stumme sent HTBS an article with a scientific approach to building a wooden eight. The article, “A Racing ‘Eight’”, was published in Yachting & Boating Monthly, March 1907. The article writer, with the pen name “M.I.N.A.”, had visited Sims & Sons of Putney, the leading racing boat builder at that time (based on the Boat Race’s winners).
Ralf-Peter includes some comments on the article. He writes:
Up to the turn of the 20th century the construction of racing boats was completely in the hands of experienced boat builders, and with certain wishes from the university crews’ coaches [ed note: and the wishes of clubs’ presidents, who at this time were the ones in charge of the rowing training of the Blue crews].
It’s interesting how small the differences were from the modern racing boats of today. There are a lot of details in the lines, length etc., except for the materials used, there are only a few serious changes.
Ralf-Peter continues:
The three major differences in my opinion are, in the firsthand, the staggered seats, more or less a British specialty. On the continent and in the United States most of the rowers at this time already rowed in so-called centre-seated boats. The staggered seats were a reminiscence of the time of inrigged boats. In Britain this was kept alive with the motivation to keep the riggers shorter. The difficulty was to balance a boat equipped in this way.
The second is the use of tholepins instead of swivel rowlocks. The use of tholepins in UK racing boats disappeared as late as the 1950s. At this time, they were obsolete in all other rowing communities.
The last thing is the stern rudder, which was in use all over the world up to the 1960s. After some experiments it was replaced with the “modern” rudder/fin combination.
The article in Yachting & Boating Monthly, March 1907 is here.
Those interested in wooden boat building, do have a look at Tim Koch’s articles from 2022, “Pieces of Eight” how George Sims built a racing boat for Oxford in 1939, and “More Pieces of Eight” how J. H. Clasper, son of Harry Clasper, built a boat in 1897.