Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/144



A COLLEGE FOUR.

CHAPTER VIII.

FOUR-OARS.

‘Tue fewer the number of performers in a boat the longer does it dake (with material of uniform quality) to acquire absolute eyenness of action. This may seem paradoxical, but none the less all practical oarsmen will, from their own personal ex- periences, endorse the statement. It has been said that it takes twice as long to perfect a four as an eight, twice as long to perfect a pair as a four, and twice as long to perfect a sculler asa pair. This scale may be fanciful, but it is approximately truthful ; it refers, of course, to the education of oarsmen for work in the respective craft, from their earliest days of instruc- tion. Tt means that a higher standard of watermanship has to be attained, in order to do justice to the style of craft rowed in, according as the ship carries more or fewer performers. Many an oarsman who by honest tugging can improve the go of an