Another single set up question

[Fishbust]

Used my new boat for the first time last weekend. It is set up neutral, oarlocks in center of slot, oars set as they shipped to match oarlock generic setting.
I am thinking I could have my oars in the water a little longer throughout the stroke, more grab at the catch and a little more bite at the end of the drive.
If I move my oarlocks inboard to get them closer to me to get around the pin a little more, should I then move my collars outboard by the same distance or leave them alone and shorten my handles by as much instead?

[mightyquinn]

Used my new boat for the first time last weekend. It is set up neutral, oarlocks in center of slot, oars set as they shipped to match oarlock generic setting.
I am thinking I could have my oars in the water a little longer throughout the stroke, more grab at the catch and a little more bite at the end of the drive.
If I move my oarlocks inboard to get them closer to me to get around the pin a little more, should I then move my collars outboard by the same distance or leave them alone and shorten my handles by as much instead?

As someone who has spent much of the past 2 seasons tweaking my 1x rigging, my general advice is to make small changes and to make as few changes as possible at a time. First step is to make as thorough a record of your current rigging numbers as you can. See a site like max rigging for guidance on what to measure and how to measure. Biorow and croker offer some guidance based on your profile (hvy/light/age/gender/speed) which can serve as a good starting point. Chances are your boat and oars are already in the ballpark, unless a prior owner or user monkeyed around with them.

In your example above, you're already talking about a bunch of potential changes. By tightening the spread, you'll be increasing the catch angle and creating a heavier feeling loading at the catch. Unless you shortern the inboard on your oars, you will have increased the overlap of the handles. Similarly, unless you shorten the inboard or move your footstretcher to the bow a bit, you'll have less clearance of the handles around your body at the finish. If you move the feet toward the bow, you're not working through the pin as much, which then counteracts your attempt to increase the catch angle by tightening the spread. By shortening the inboard, you'll increase the gearing making it harder to row at a given rating unless you shorten the overall length and outboard. Gets complicated quickly with lots of tradeoffs.

[Stelph]

This slide deck may help with understanding what changes to each part of the rig does, and also explains how to change the rig and rations "right"

http://www.slideshare.net/rowperfect/ro ... an-inboard

One thing I would suggest trying before you drastically change too much would be to add a degree of lateral pitch to the pins, so make the pins lean a degree "away" from the boat, if your riggers allow that. That makes it so the pitch is slightly steeper at the catch for a better connection, and less steep at the finish, to help with the clean finish

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... ics/step9/

[Fishbust]

Wow, lots of reading at the slideshare link. Thanks. Will take a while to get through it all but surely will learn some things along the way.

In the meantime, I decided at 5'6", that since I am choking everything else up with rigger aft and stretcher forward, to reduce my span from 160 to 158 and inboard by the same amount and did a 7 1/2 mile row. Feels much better for me, my technique/form was much better and what I need to be doing right now until my skills become automatic. Right now it takes me a long time (still-but yes a new to me boat) to warm up and feel the right connection to the boat and water conditions. At 158 though, my stroke rate yes of course is noticeably higher. Down the road I will do what Greg says and go back up to 159 when I am ready.