Modern crew shells are gorgeous. There are few sights prettier than a brand new Empacher eight with carbon fiber riggers, looking like a restrained jet. Forms and materials of crew shells have been upgraded and reiterated countless times, and the result is fleets of gorgeous missiles that move faster than ever. But even these glorious feats of materials science and mechanical engineering can’t match the efficiency of a banned piece of innovation: the sliding rigger.
The sliding rigger seems much more complicated than the sliding (rolling) seat, but they were actually patented in a similar time period: Just after the Civil war in 1876 (who knew). The idea is simple: instead of the rower pulling themselves up into the catch, as is done with modern rowing, the rower would pull the rigger back towards themselves during the recovery of the stroke. Analysis on the power efficiency of the sliding rigger has never been done, but it definitely retains some large dynamic advantages over traditional seating.
The majority of a sliding rigger’s mechanical advantage comes from the fact that the rower does not move their mass towards the stern (back) of the boat. This recovery motion in modern shells slows the hull speed significantly (which has prompted research into anti-phase rowing). The sliding rigger eliminates much of this handicap by allowing the rower’s mass to remain stationary while they pull the rigger back towards their body. This minimizes the amount of mass transfer forwards and backwards within the shell and helps maintain higher average velocity.
About one hundred years after patents were filed, the sliding rigger was finally implemented in competition. In the 1982 world championships, the sliding riggers were used in the Men’s 1x. The times weren’t blistering fast, but consider the fact that hulls and macon blades that were used in these races:
At the end of the day, if everyone used this technology, theoretically the only thing that would change would be the absolute race times, and the margins between crews. The order of rowers crossing the line would eventually return to the status quo once everyone learned to use them well.
So, do I think they need to be re-adopted? No. Do I want one? Yes.