Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/164

 distance the butt of his oar-handle will come at the middle of his breast or even more inside the boat, In such a position he cannot finish squarely and with good effect. Therefore he can- not go back ad /. [ut the sculler is always placed eyenly to his work, it is not on one side of him more than another. He should, when laying himself out for pace, swing back so far that his sculls come out just as his hands touch his ribs, Ina wager boat, when well practised, he can afford to let his sculls overlap as much as six or even seven inches. But, after all, the extent of overlap is a matter of taste with so many scullers, that it would be unwise to lay down any hard and fast rule, beyond saying that at least the handles should overlap four inches, or, what is much the same, one hand should at least cover the other when the sculls lie in the rowlocks at right angles to the keel.

‘Yo return to the slide in sculling, Since the back swing should be longer in sculling than in rowing, and as there is a limit to the length which any pair of legs can slide, and since also it has been laid down as a rule that both when sculling and when rowing the slide should be economised so that it may last as long as the swing lasts, the reader will gather that the legs will haye to extend more gradually when sliding to sculls than when sliding to oars. Therefore a man accustomed to row on slides, and whose legs are more or less habituated to a certain extension coupled with swing when rowing, must keep a watch upon himself when sculling Jest his rowing habits should make him finish his slide prematurely, when he needs to pro- long his swing for sculling, Unless his slide lasts out his swing, his finish, after legs have been extended, will only press the boat without propelling her.

In rowing an oarsman is guilty of fault if he meets or even pulls up to his oar. In sculling, with a very long swing back it is not a fault to commence the recovery of the body while the hands are still completing their journey home to the ribs, ‘The body should not drop, nor slouch over the sculls while thus ineeting them. It should recover with open chest and head well up, simply pulling itself up slightly, to start the back swing,