The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging, Tenth Anniversary Edition [Paperback]

Mike Davenport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2002

The ultimate guide to rigging—the book a generation of coaches grew up with—gets even better. The Tenth Anniversary edition of Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging adds pages and pages of more information to help you with your rigging. Covers all aspects of rigging —from the hardware to making adjustments to keeping the equipment alive. Includes sweep rowing and sculling. Written in simple step-by-step instructions with illustrations to help simplify this sometimes mystifying part of rowing. Over 400 pages and 100 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A must read. It demystifies and simplifies rigging. Full of useful, practical information. Every serious coach should own this book -- Joe Murtaugh, lightweight men’s coach at Princeton University and two-time World Champion coach of the US Men's Lightweight Eight

Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging is one of the finest examples of technical writing I've ever seen. -- Dean Travis Clarke, Executive Editor of Sport Fishing, Marlin, Fly Fishing in Saltwaters and Boating Life Magazines, and host of Sport Fishing T

The one book I DON'T lend out. . . it's too valuable not to have on my bookshelf. -- George Kirschbaum, author of the Down and Dirty Guide to Coxing

About the Author

Mike Davenport, Ed.D., is the Head Rowing coach at Washington College, a Division III NCAA member institution. He has been coaching rowing for over twenty-two years, and has authored eight books. His company, SportWork, has a mission to "help coaches survive, thrive, and excel in the wild world of sports."

Mike was the boatman for the U.S. National Rowing team for many years, including the 1996 U.S. Olympic Rowing team. He and his family live in Maryland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: SportWork, Inc. (December 2, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0963930095
• ISBN-13: 978-0963930095
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,181,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential book for any coach, March 15, 2005

By 

Masters Coach (North Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging, Tenth Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

I keep my copy of this book with me at all times, at regattas, in the boathouse, whenever I travel to guest coach at other places. It is an easy reference guide and doesn't make you feel dumb for not knowing everything about rigging. It treats rigging as an art and makes it fun, not scary.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE definitive guide to rigging., March 15, 2005

By 

John P. Dolan (Amherst, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging, Tenth Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

When faced with a rigging question, Mike Davenport's guide is the first book I reach for. As I enter my second spring season as a rowing coach, I am only starting to really get a handle on how much there is to the optimal rigging of shells. Mike takes the most complex of ideas and breaks it down so that even the slowest or most novice reader can understand and accomplish each task.

This is reflected in the way that he breaks down each rigging "job." When I decided to starboard rig on of my fours for the first time, I was panicking. Thankfully, with this guide in hand, and Mike's advice , "Don't panic" I was read for the task. He kept each part simple.

Not only does "The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging" explain exactly how to go about the various adjustments neccesary on a rowing shell - it also explains the theory behind it. More than a simple 1,2,3 step by step work, it allows the reader to understand the "why" of each step.

This reflect's Mike's entire philosophy of rowing. The rower/coach/rigger who understands "why" he is doing something will be much more successful than the one who does things mechanically without true knowledge.

If you want to learn the how and why behind rigging shells to their full potential, no matter your expertise, this is the Bible for you.

- John Dolan
Assistant Coach
Amherst College Rowing Association

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nuts, Bolts and Metaphysics of Rigging, March 16, 2005

By 

W. E. Schweinle - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nuts & Bolts Guide to Rigging, Tenth Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

Mike Davenport has put together THE seminal tome on rigging rowing shells. This book has something to offer every rigging-aspirant, from the raw beginner to the well-calloused professional. Even non-rigging oars-persons can become better rowers by learning and understanding the principles Mr. Davenport sets forth.

The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging is organized around well reasoned topics and can serve as a text or as a reference or both--easily. It mixes concrete, applied information about rigging (e.g. rigging charts) with equally important information on the kharma of rigging and bits of humor scattered throughout. All reflect Mr. Davenport's vast expertise, experience and his amusement at the compulsive boatman who tries to fit boats of varying size and shape to humans of even more varying size and shape.

By accident of geography, I am essentially a self-taught sculler. I am also a self-taught rigger, rigging my own equipment using Mike Davenport's book as a guide. After that, I hook up the SpeedCoach, put the boat in the water, and see how things go. This is exactly the kind of careful, empirical approach that is presented and outlined in the Nuts and Bolts Guide to Rigging.

I am glad to recommend the Nuts and Bolts Guide to anyone inerested in rowing--period.