Editing Racing shell (section)

==History==
The racing shell evolved from the simple working [[rowboat]]. Boats with longer [[hull (watercraft)|hulls]] and narrower in [[Beam (nautical)|beam]] were developed in the early 19th century specifically for team racing. These dedicated boats were the first boats that could be called racing shells, and they evolved into the highly specialized forms used today.

===Riggers===
A narrower boat provides a sharper angle to the bow and a smaller cross-sectional area reducing [[drag (physics)|drag]] and [[wave making resistance|wave drag]], and avoiding [[hull speed]] limitations at race speed. The first racing shells, while narrower than working rowboats, were limited by the width necessary to mount the oarlocks on the boat's sides ("[[gunwale]]s"). By attaching outriggers to the gunwales, the oarlocks could be placed farther out. This resulted in two things: oars got much longer, providing more length to the strokes, and hulls got narrower until they were as narrow as possible while still retaining sufficient buoyancy and balance.

=== Materials ===
[[Image:UVMCREW.JPG|thumb|University of Vermont 8+ oar shell]]
Originally made from [[lapstrake]] [[wood]], shells are now almost always made from a [[composite material]] for strength and weight advantages. The first composite shells were made from a form of [[papier-mâché]] and became popular in the 1870s. These paper shells were sold world-wide by the Waters Paper Boat Factory of Troy, New York. The next evolution of rowing shells were mainly created from thin plywood sandwiching a cardboard honeycomb structure with a fiberglass outer hull. Modern shells are usually made of [[carbon-fibre reinforced plastic]] in a [[Honeycomb structure|honeycomb]] structure. They are manufactured by either cold laying up of the carbon, which is then left to set, or by using heat curing, which ensures that the carbon fibre composite is properly set. The best shells are characterized by their "stiffness", as the lack of flexing means none of the force exerted by the rower is wasted in twisting the boat.

===Sliding seats===
A rower on a fixed seat is limited in the amount of power they can apply to the oars by the strength in their upper body and the distance they can pull the oars on each stroke. After riggers were added to the shell allowing the use of longer oars, rowers took advantage by taking longer strokes and using their legs during the stroke. At first, the athletes wore trousers with wear resistant [[leather]] bottoms covered in [[grease (lubricant)|grease]] and the shells had concave, longitudinal seats. The athletes could then use their legs to slide along the seat, adding the power of their legs and letting them greatly lengthen the stroke. This eventually led to the modern sliding seat, mounted on rollers, commonly called the slide in the rowing community, which allows nearly frictionless movement of the rower's body. Rolling seats were introduced around the year 1880. They differed from modern seats in that ball bearings were not available. Several inventors produced designs which avoided the friction which would result from use of a simple axle and bushing design. Patents were granted to [[Octavius Hicks]] (1880),<ref>{{cite patent
| country	= CA
| number	= 11666
| status	= patent 
| title		= IMPROVEMENTS ON BOAT SLIDING SEATS
| gdate		= 	1880-08-26
| pridate	=  1880-08-03
| invent1	= Hicks, Octavius
|url=http://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/11666/summary.html
}}</ref> George Warin (1882),<ref>{{cite patent
| country	= CA | number	= 155676
| status	= patent 
| title		= IMPROVEMENTS ON SLIDING SEATS FOR BOATS
| gdate = 1882-10-23
| pridate	= 1882-09-16
| invent1	= Warin, George
|url=http://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/15676/summary.html
}}</ref> and Michael F. Davis (1882).<ref>{{cite patent
| country	= US
| number	= 282855
| status	= patent 
| title		= ROW BOAT SEAT
| pubdate	= <!-- YYYY-MM-DD -->
|fdate=1882-02-15
| gdate		= 1883-08-07
| invent1	= Davis, M.F.
| url=http://www.rowinghistory.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/282855.pdf
}}</ref> Hicks, of [[Etobicoke]], was a boat builder, hotelier, road and bridge contractor. Warin, of [[Toronto]], a boat builder and famous decoy maker, was coach to world rowing champion [[Ned Hanlan]]. With the advent of the sliding seat, Hanlan was able to greatly outperform his English and American counterparts. The Davis seat used rollers in a race similar to a [[ball bearing]].

===Sliding rigger===
The same advantages may be obtained by fixing the seat and mounting the outriggers on rollers. Now the athlete's body mass remains stationary and the boat doesn't pitch bow to stern nearly as much. This improves the boat speed significantly.<ref name="Bill Miller 2000">{{cite web |url=http://www.rowinghistory.net/resources/equipment
|first=Bill
|last=Miller 
|title=The Development Of Rowing Equipment
|date=January 2000
|access-date=2020-12-31
}} 
</ref>
The disadvantage is that this arrangement may result in blisters on one's buttocks and in the risk of sliding off one's seat when exerting too much explosive force at the beginning of a race
.<ref>{{cite web 
|url=http://www.row2k.com/content/row2k12.pdf
|first=Peter
|last=Mallory 
|title=The Sport of Rowing
|year=2010
|access-date=2011-04-26 
|page=1836
}}</ref> 
In April 1877 Michael Davis of Portland Maine applied for a patent for a sliding rigger/foot-board with fixed seat.<ref>{{cite web 
|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US209960
|first=Michael
|last=Davis 
|title=Improvement in outrigger-boats (US patent 209,960)
|date=1877-04-04
|access-date=2011-04-26 
}}</ref>
In 1981, the German [[Peter-Michael Kolbe]] won the [[International Rowing Federation|FISA]] World Championship using a sliding rigger. In August 1983 FISA banned the use of the sliding-rigger, presumably because it was thought to be more costly than sliding-seat boats.<ref name="Bill Miller 2000" />