Coxless Puns

I'm interested in across the rowing community who steers in your boat. I'm a steersman and have always steered from bow seat, but recently, I was told by my coach that he steered from 3 seat. What's most common across the rowing community?

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Those who are the bow rower of their 2x, 4x, 2-, or 4-, how much do you talk during a race? What do you say to your partner/boat? Full sentences? Few Words? Grunts? Encouragement? Race developments? Silence? Are you loud or normal volume? Just curious what opinions are on this topic.

Ok so I just finished my novice year as a rower where we only rowed in eights, and now I'm doing a summer program where we row in a lot of small boats. I've only been in a pair once before and I've never bowed a coxless boat before. Anyways, they just announced lineups and I'm going to be bow of a coxless pair. Any tips considering I only have a very vague idea of how to steer a boat, never mind a boat as sensitive to pressure as a pair?

Currently training in a coxless four due to no cox but we will be racing coxed come regattas where hopefully we'll have a cox. Any solutions to help adapt a coxless four to feel in some way a coxed four so it doesn't feel completely alien come racing?

Will take a bit of physics calculations, but let's give it a go.

The Canadian men's 8 at the 2012 World Cup II currently hold the record at 5:19.35.

Of that squad, the rowers weigh a combined weight of 792 kilograms. The cox, Brian Price, weighs 55 kilos. So the whole crew weighed a hefty 847 kilos. The boat they were in weight another 90 kilos.

Let's say for arguments sake they were on completely flat water and with no wind.

So if it takes 5:19.35 for 8 men weighing a combined 792 kilos in a 90 kilo boat to drag a 55 kilo man with them, how long would it take them minus the extra weight?

I don't get steering wires- I'm yet to successfully adjust them without help: need to be able to move them and fix them when they break on my own, as my club just bought its first coxless quad. So I need a step by step guide for dummies. The more detail the better. Or, if there's a book or website you'd recommend with a good guide? Thanks very much!!!

I figured this was more of a physics-based question, so I posted it here.

I was watching the men's coxless four final when I noticed that there were two configurations for which way the oars could point. Australia had the regular alternating configuration of left- and right-handed rowers (http://i.imgur.com/1xwiB.png), but all of the other teams were oriented so that the two middle rowers were of the same handedness (http://i.imgur.com/QiKjO.png). What is the reasoning behind these choices? Is there any truth behind them? I'd imagine that the alternating method is the more classic version and, at some point, the other method started being adopted. I'm curious to know if there are any benefits of one method over the other and if they would be most useful in particular circumstances.

Seeing as the Olympics have both the Women's Coxless Pair and Eight, why is the Coxless Four skipped out there? Seems weird for them to have the smallest and largest sweep boats but not the middle one.

Just a simple question that I've often wondered but never figured out why. Anyone have an answer?

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Terms

Coxless: no "cox" or coxswain, who is generally in charge of steering/navigating the rowing shell and giving commands to the crew.

Pair: a boat with two rowers sweeping.

Sweeping: when rowers only have one large oar each, as opposed to 'sculling', which is when rowers have two oars each.

I need to make something that we can hook up our stroke coach on in the 4, for me in the 2 seat. Dont really have any ideas yet.