Editing Racing shell (section)

===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]].