This weekend, some two-thousand boats will be zipping up and down the river in Cambridge during the 51st Head of the Charles Regatta. And while those boats will be manned by nearly 10-thousand plus-athletes, not all of those athletes will be rowing. Still, that doesn't mean they won’t be working.
On a placid - if bustling - early morning on the dock at the Boston University Boathouse, I dodge a few dozen hulking young men on their way to the water, and watch – a bit flummoxed - at the handful of diminutive guys and gals bossing them all around.
“It definitely makes for an interesting dynamic,” said Mackenzie Copp, co-captain of the BU Men’s Varsity rowing team.
"You’ve got all these massive guys walking around the boathouse contrasted by some really small guys and girls that have bigger personalities than a lot of the big guys."
These big personalities in small packages are the coxswains.
“Basically the coxswain is a coach inside the boat, “ explained assistant men's rowing coach Mathis Jessen. "He or she is the boss."
Uros Marincovic, a BU rower, put it another way: "They are like jockeys, riding the horse."
It's an apt metaphor. As with jockeys, there’s an advantage to having a small coxswains. The boats on the river today are called “eights." Predictably, they consist of an eight-member crew, all of whom propel the long thin shell down river in powerful, unified strokes. But the coxswains? Dead weight. No oars. In fact, they barely move. So just what do they do?
“There’s a belief that it’s a pretty easy job, and I think every rower at some point in their career has believed that coxing shouldn’t be hard, ” said Maggie Read a varsity coxswain. On the collegiate level, women can cox for the men’s team. In fact, at BU, most of the men’s coxswains are women. At this level, Read says, everyone knows better than to question the value of the coxswain.
“I have so much fun doing it,” she said. “It’s like having a huge family of big brothers but at the end of the day, you’re in charge.”
Being in charge means plenty of responsibility. For starters, Copp explains that the coxswain is the only person in the boat who can actually see where they’re going.
“I’m facing backwards,” says rower Marincovic. “I can only see the guy’s head in front of me and she knows what’s going on so when she tells me that I have to do something, I better listen to her or else I could screw up the whole race.”
And so the coxswain steers, deciding when to turn, or pass another boat. No easy task.
“It doesn’t turn fast. It’s not like driving a car, it’s like maneuvering, I dunno, a freighter or something. Or like an 18 wheeler.” said Read.
The coxswain is also in charge of the pace, which coach Jessen explained as we motored alongside one of the team’s boats on the water, coxswain at full throttle, ratcheting up the pace with a hearty "c'mon boys!"
"The coxswain controls the gas petal. If he or she wants more speed or needs more speed, he or she will get it out of the rowers," said Jessen.
And it’s not just the technical stuff. Races like the Head of the Charles are long, and it’s up to the coxswain to keep the crew on task and – most importantly – motivated.
"The Head of the Charles is, for us, just over 14 minutes," said Copp. "If you’re lacking strategy you’re gonna have a bad race, but also if you’re lacking motivation, 14 minutes is a long time while your redlining."
All of this makes for a tough job, one that Read said requires a “certain type” to be successful.
“I have never met a coxswain without a pretty serious Napoleonic disorder,” said Read. “I think it just comes with the job. You can’t be in charge of telling people that are 18 inches taller and up to a hundred pounds bigger than you what to do and not get a massive head from it.”
And, she said, there is no better race to see just how crucial the coxswain is, than the Head of the Charles.
"It's generally considered a coxswain's race because your coxswain makes or breaks this," she explained. "It’s one thing to have to go straight for 2,000 meters. It’s another thing to be going around a 90 degree bend – and your passing a crew – and there’s another crew just ahead of you, and your going through the same arch of a bridge. Things are gonna go wrong, and it’s always pretty fun to see."
You can, of course, see for yourself this weekend. And if you do make your way to the Head of the Charles, remember to keep an eye on the little guys and gals in the back of the boat.
Where did the word 'Coxswain' come from anyway?
If there is something in the news that has you curious to know more, let Edgar know. Email him at curiositydesk@wgbh.org. He might just look into it for you.
