Non-motoring > Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? Miscellaneous
Thread Author: henry k Replies: 21
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 13:20 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - henry k
Cambridge ladies finished up rowing the varsity boat race with their eight full of water yesterday.
There was some mention of going with/without pumps and a basic weight penalty involved.
Some of the TV views showed what looked like a couple of plastic pipes hanging over the sides discharging water.
I assume that each eight had a couple of batteries to power a simple pump.
Anyone got any more details?

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 Mon 28 Mar 16 13:24 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Bromptonaut
>> Cambridge ladies finished up rowing the varsity boat race with their eight full of water
>> yesterday.

Pumps were mentioned in BBC 5Live this morning. One of the presenters used to Cox and explained their existence and that Cambridge had used theirs after being red flagged. She also reckoned she seen sea races in conditions less rough than those on the Thames yesterday.

Didn't mention how the pump worked though.
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 13:46 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Ambo

>> Didn't mention how the pump worked though.
>>

Could be mechanical, I suppose. If so, should make very little extra weight.
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 15:22 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Zero

>> Didn't mention how the pump worked though.

it has two pipes, it sucks water in one end and expels it at the other.
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 15:38 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Manatee
Probably a submersible pump, so one pipe and a cable. It was a good one whatever it was, I didn't think they had any freeboard at all at one point.

Modern eights won't sink completely, they have buoyancy under the seats and in the pointy bits.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 28 Mar 16 at 15:39
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 15:52 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Focusless
>> I didn't think they had any freeboard at all at one point.

Yeah, I thought they were gonners for sure. It was nice to see them get over the line, even if it was pump assisted.
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 Mon 28 Mar 16 16:17 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - bathtub tom
You could see the water being expelled at one point. Judging by the flow rate, that had to be quite a powerful pump and I would think the battery supplying it would have to be similarly hefty. Must be quite a weight combined.
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 Tue 29 Mar 16 18:49 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - malc
Maybe mechanical pump linked in to the seats...plenty of 'free' kinetic energy here. Aluminium to minimise weight, batteries are heavy. Maybe not, if extra friction to drive pumps would outweigh extra weigh of batteries..
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 Tue 29 Mar 16 19:04 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - malc
Maybe hand pump operated by the Cox.
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 Tue 29 Mar 16 18:58 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - malc
Brilliant !!This design needs only one pipe thought ..unless its me that can't count.!!
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 Tue 29 Mar 16 19:23 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Robin O'Reliant
There are enough people in the boat, surely one could carry a bucket and bail it out?

Damn toffs, frightened of getting their hands wet I suppose.
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 10:21 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Mapmaker
Henry, perhaps ask your daughter - she knows the cox of the Oxford boat which had its pumps running too by the look of it.
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 10:29 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - henry k
>> Henry, perhaps ask your daughter - she knows the cox of the Oxford boat which
>> had its pumps running too by the look of it.
>>
I will do that.

All her rowing was done in "good" weather so no pumps in their eight.
Their UNI races were on the river where it is so narrow the have to race in a line.
13 eights in a line and go when the cannon fires.
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 12:43 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Manatee
>> All her rowing was done in "good" weather so no pumps in their eight.
>> Their UNI races were on the river where it is so narrow the have to
>> race in a line.
>> 13 eights in a line and go when the cannon fires.

On the Cam? Best part of half a mile start line up with up to 17 x 60 foot boats and 90 foot between them. My rowist eldest (I watched the UBR with her on Sunday) has never been in an eight with a pump like that.

I'd guess it's battery powered, it doesn't have to last very long so won't need something the size of a car battery.

A standard 12V submersible bilge pump with 100 litres per minute capacity will draw 7A-10A. The unusual requirement would be that the battery would have to be in a waterproof casing as it is likely to be inundated.

Even with lead-acid a 7Ah battery like this should easily last 20 minutes and weighs about 2Kg.

goo.gl/58BMDU
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 13:01 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Armel Coussine
No pumps in my day (at school, mid-fifties). We had a clinker eight which was heavy and an old shell eight with a slight twist on it.

The Thames can get quite choppy sometimes. Can't remember which boat sank under us, but one of them did.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 30 Mar 16 at 13:03
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 13:12 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - henry k
On the Cam?
Certainly not in " the other place". On the Thames !
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 13:46 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Armel Coussine
>> Certainly not in " the other place". On the Thames !

At school hk, in the fifties. Not at university where I avoided sport for the short time I was there. It was the Thames all right. Unless they call it something else where it passes Runnymede.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Wed 30 Mar 16 at 13:48
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 14:11 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - henry k
I came across this quick video.

Not an unusual happening with inexperienced coxes especially in the lower events
A good commentary!
Needs full screen viewing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_aoprceYRo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLwLEdJ6XOA
Sinking the LOCR Eight at the Brentwood College Regatta
Onboard camera view + an alternative to pumps.b
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 16:47 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Mapmaker
Quite hard to sink a boat on the Cam or the Isis. Brentwood College is on the Pacific Ocean; a bit choppier than a sleepy river...
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 Wed 30 Mar 16 20:21 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - MD
>> >> Certainly not in " the other place". On the Thames !
>>
>> At school hk, in the fifties. Not at university where I avoided sport for the
>> short time I was there. It was the Thames all right. Unless they call it
>> something else where it passes Runnymede.
>>
We used to go and swim in the 'River' at Runnymede. Often went there in a soft top Triumph Spit'.

That stretch of the 'River' was actually called heaven cos that's where I got the Knicke.......off of one lovely.......oops, oops oops. Slight thread drift. Happy days them.....
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 Thu 31 Mar 16 00:39 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - henry k
My daughter knows nothing about pumps.
She said they are very secretive about the design of their boats.

She added that there are very few rules governing the race.
Obey the umpire and pass under specific arches of the bridges and .....?
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 Fri 29 Apr 16 14:58 
 Rowing eights. Details of onboard pumps? - Armel Coussine
Although rowing shorts had a padded seat, one could still get blisters on one's nyash when one started rowing. Sliding seats work on a one-size-fits-all principle, which by definition is never perfect.

The other thing about oarsmen at school was that they ('we' for a little while) would have no truck with any sort of sports shoes: one wore one's heaviest available lace-up black shoes which were supposed to give more 'punch'. They often got wet of course so one really needed a spare pair.
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