Rowing in Circles: Wild Invention

Rowing tanks are commonplace in boathouse across the United States. They pump water through channels to simulate rowing in a boat, and most of the time rowers are organized to mimic a boat. However, there exists a strange alternative to this convention.

Although rowing has been around for a long time (see thousands of years), most of the exponential speed gains have occurred in the past 200 years. The most dramatic changes in boat velocity have been the result of changes to the hull and other equipment used on the water, but that discussion is for another time as controversy surrounds some rowing innov…