A coxed four is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars

Sweep (rowing)

Sweep or sweep-oar rowing is a type of rowing when a rower has one oar, usually held with both hands. As each rower has only one oar, the rowers have to be paired so that there is an oar on each side of the boat. This is in contrast to sculling when a rower has two oars, one in each hand. In the...

 and is steered by a cox.

The crew consists of four rowers, each having one oar

Oar (sport rowing)

In rowing, oars are used to propel the boat. Oars differ from paddles in that they use a fixed fulcrum to transfer power from the handle to the blade, rather than using the athlete's shoulders or hands as the pivot-point as in canoeing and kayaking. Typical Sculling oars are around 284 cm -...

, and a cox

Coxswain

The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...

. There are two rowers on the stroke side

Stroke (rowing)

Stroke is a term which has multiple meanings within the sport of rowing. It is used to refer to the action of propelling the boat with oars, to a rower seated in a particular position and to one side of the boat.-Stroke action:...

 (rower's right hand side) and two on the bow side

Bow (rowing)

Bow is a term which has multiple meanings within the sport of rowing. It is used to refer to a rower seated in a particular position and to one side of the boat.-Bow:...

 (rower's lefthand side). The cox steers the boat using a rudder

Rudder

A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...

 and may be seated at the stern of the boat where there is a view of the crew or in the bow (known as a bowloader

Bowloader

A bowloader is a crew shell in which the coxswain lies semi-supine in the bow, as opposed to the normal seated position at the stern.Bowloaders are often seen as coxed fours and also coxed pairs...

). With a bowloader, amplification

Cox box

A cox box is an electronic device used in competitive rowing that combines a digital stroke rate monitor and elapsed time readout with a voice amplifier...

 is needed to communicate with the crew which is sitting behind, but the cox has a better view of the course and the weight distribution

Weight distribution

Weight distribution is the apportioning of weight within a vehicle, especially cars, airplanes, and trains.In a vehicle which relies on gravity in some way, weight distribution directly affects a variety of vehicle characteristics, including handling, acceleration, traction, and component life...

 may help the boat go faster. When there is no cox, the boat is referred to as a "coxless four

Coxless four

A coxless four is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars.The crew consists of four rowers, each having one oar. There are two rowers on the stroke side and two on the bow side...

".

Racing boat

Racing shell

In watercraft, a racing shell is an extremely narrow, and often disproportionately long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is outfitted with long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks away from the boat, and sliding seats...

s (often called "shells") are long, narrow, and broadly semi-circular in cross-section in order to reduce drag to a minimum. Originally made from wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

, shells are now almost always made from a composite material

Composite material

Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

 (usually carbon-fibre reinforced plastic) for strength and weight advantages. Fours have a fin towards the rear, to help prevent roll and yaw and to help the rudder. The riggers are staggered alternately along the boat so that the forces apply asymmetrically to each side of the boat. If the boat is sculled

Sculling

Sculling generally refers to a method of using oars to propel watercraft in which the oar or oars touch the water on both the port and starboard sides of the craft, or over the stern...

 by rowers each with two oars the combination is referred to as a quad scull

Quad scull

A quad scull, or quadruple scull in full, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars, one in each hand....

. In a quad scull the riggers apply forces symmetrically. A sweep oared boat has to be stiffer to handle the unmatched forces, and so requires more bracing, which means it has to be heavier than an equivalent sculling boat. However most rowing clubs cannot afford to have a dedicated large hull with four seats which might be rarely used and instead generally opt for versatility in their fleet by using stronger shells which can be rigged for either as fours or quads.

"Coxed four" is one of the classes recognized by the International Rowing Federation

International Rowing Federation

The Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aviron, or FISA for short, is the International Rowing Federation which is the governing body for international Rowing. Its current president is Denis Oswald...

. It was one of the original events in the Olympics

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 but was dropped in 1992.

See also

• Rowing at the Summer Olympics
  Rowing at the Summer Olympics
  Rowing at the Summer Olympics has been part of the competition since the 1900 Summer Olympics. Rowing was on the program at the 1896 Summer Olympics but was cancelled due to bad weather. Only men were allowed to compete until the women's events were introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal...
  
  
• World Rowing Championships
  World Rowing Championships
  The World Rowing Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA . It is a week long event held at the end of the northern hemisphere summer and in non-Olympic years is the highlight of the international rowing calendar.The first event was held in Lucerne, Switzerland in 1962...
  
  
• Britannia Challenge Cup
  Britannia Challenge Cup
  The Britannia Challenge Cup is a rowing event for men's coxed fours at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from a single rowing club...