Rudder on a 4x

Question
My assistant coach and I were debating whether to take off the rudder for our school's M4x, since bow seat hasn't really picked up the nuances of being a steersman quite as quickly as we would have liked.  We're a bit worried he may get a little carried away with the foot steering and oversteer, killing the boat speed we've been working on.

Of course on the other hand, we're also worried that without the rudder, he won't be able to steer enough just by himself!  He bows a double scull well enough, which is encouraging, but steering a quad on pressure alone is a bit of a trickier proposition. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Steve: Excellent question.  99% of the questions I get here are things like "I did an 8:29/2000 on the CII erg; how do I get it down below 7:00?"

If it was a sweep-oared 4 w/o coxswain, I'd say the rudder is mandatory, especially if one side is a bit stronger than the other.  But for a quad scull, based on the scenario as you laid it out, I would definitely go without the rudder.

If your inexperienced bowman has problems operating a foot-stretcher rudder, he can kill the run of the boat with excessive rudder movement that will check the boat down.  Additionally, I've seen rowers get mixed up and move the rudder the opposite direction to where he wants the boat to go. Finally, a rower so preoccupied with steering can lose focus on his rowing, thus increasing the susceptibility of not swinging with the other rowers or even worse, catching a crab.

I honestly don't recall ever rowing in a quad that even had a rudder.  I think sculling boats are less prone to veering off-course as you don't have the pulling issues you have in sweep-oared boats.  I think the bowman can handle the steering on pressure alone and/or issuing a command for the rowers astern to apply more pressure to a given slide.

Perhaps you may want to consider moving the bowman up to 2-seat (or out of the boat) and have a more experienced oarsman in the bow.

Regards/AP