Brad Alan Lewis“A rowing shell is a magic thing. But when you’re nearing the finish line and the demand is for a last 30-second sprint, it becomes an extension of your body.”
From the earliest days, athletes, coaches and craftspeople have endeavored to design and build rowing shells that would be comfortable, fast, and light. When the boats were wooden, they retained an organic quality that helped them feel priceless and timeless. A rowing shell was sacred, shared, and idealized. Within that culture of idealization, we named rowing shells after people who were special and memorable.
Modern materials and design engineering demand change from the culture of idealized rowing shells. Boats built using carbon fiber with resins are lighter, stiffer, faster, and more easily mass produced. Composite materials have also changed the aesthetic. Boats today are less organic, and more like a high performance luxury car. Sleek and glossy, when rowed well they move with intent and an almost mathematically-precise displacement of the water. They also decidedly do not age gracefully. Hulls lose their shine and become stained. Salt cakes on and erodes the metal. Even freshwater boats eventually start to pick up rust stains from the hardware. The sun’s UV light relentlessly breaks down the composite material, yellowing the shell and robbing it of its longitudinal stiffness. After 20 years, sometimes less, the modern composite boat becomes an eyesore; at worst it is an useless burden that cannot be unloaded easily.
The growth of our sport and modern boat manufacturing techniques have also allowed rowing shells to become a bit of a commodity item. While we still honor people by dedicating a rowing shell to their name, witty, colloquial names are just as common. For every John J. Carlin, there are a dozen “Quadzillas,” “Poseidens” and the ever popular “Boaty McBoatface.” The rowing shell has metamorphosed from cherished heirloom to just another piece of very expensive athletic equipment.
Thus, in the forty-plus years since composite boats first hit the water, rowing shell “boneyards” have sprung up in the back lots of boathouses all over the world. Many clubs, unsure of how to put to rest, or “dispose” of the oldest boats, simply leave them on the ground and walk away. Therein lies the question/problem: What is the most appropriate way to “retire” an old composite rowing shell? How can we avoid a “boneyard” (essentially a landfill strategy) approach to disposal? Besides the obvious environmental and sustainability concerns with the disposal of composite materials, we have the aforementioned cultural idealization of rowing shells. People get emotional when confronted with saying goodbye to the shell they won a national championship in 20 years ago. The cultural legacy of “cherishing” a rowing shell still hangs on; How do you sensitively address people’s attachments?
My advice at the outset of addressing the issue of rowing shell disposal to all clubs is that there should always be a “fleet management” programme in place. There should be a plan/process/protocol for acquiring new boats and removing old ones. If your club is established enough to routinely acquire shop-new boats, then every shell that comes in should be immediately stamped (literally? Sure, why not?) with a “sell-by” date. Most manufacturers agree that the competitive life of a composite rowing shell is approximately 10 years (give or take depending on storage and usage). After that the composite materials grow weaker and the hull starts to lose its longitudinal stiffness. From that point you may get another 10 years of training time out of it, but the vast majority of rowing shells are well-past their useful life after 20 years. An appropriate strategy then, is to sell the boat long before it significantly depreciates and loses its value. Not only does this make economic sense (buy a new boat for £30K, sell an old boat for £10K, then new boat actually only costs £20K) but it also keeps an active pipeline of used equipment flowing down to younger clubs/teams that are just getting started or still building their fleets.
Even with a fleet management system in place, the challenge still exists as to what to do with a rowing shell that has lived out its useful life.
The Decommissioning Ceremony
“Let go of the items you do not need with gratitude.”
Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo, the famous tidying expert, has a funny little rule about “let go of the items you do not need with gratitude.” That is to say, everytime you let go of something you do not need anymore, you take a moment to thank it for what it taught you, say goodbye, and then move on.
I recommend a brief decommissioning ceremony for every rowing shell that has lived out its useful life. Most clubs and teams are familiar with the new boat naming and/or blessing ceremony. It is entirely appropriate to schedule a similar event (perhaps on a smaller scale) for the boat that is ready to be ‘decommissioned.” This is an amazing opportunity for those who may have an emotional attachment to the hull to say thank you and goodbye.
What then? What we don’t want is to simply throw the hull in the back lot so that it can grow into the ground. Many people simply get out the saw and hack away at it until it can be squeezed into the dumpster for disposal and eventually end up in a land-fill. This practice is neither practical or environmentally sustainable.
Check back soon for Part Two: How to dispose of your rowing shell in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way.
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