A coxless 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...

.

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 -...

. 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). There is no cox, but the 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...

 is controlled by one of the crew, normally with the rudder cable attached to the toe of one of their shoes which can pivot about the ball of the foot, moving the cable left or right. The steersman may row at bow, who has the best vision when looking over their shoulder, or on straighter courses stroke may steer, since they can point the stern of the boat at some landmark at the start of the course. The equivalent boat when it is steered by a cox is referred to as a "coxed four

Coxed four

A coxed 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 and is steered by a cox....

".

Racing boats

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...

 (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.

"Coxless 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...

. and is an event at the Olympic Games

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...

.

In 1868, Walter Bradford Woodgate

Walter Bradford Woodgate

Walter Bradford Woodgate was a British barrister and oarsman who won the Wingfield Sculls three times, and various events at Henley Royal Regatta including the Silver Goblets five times and the Diamond Challenge Sculls once...

 rowing a Brasenose coxed four

Coxed four

A coxed 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 and is steered by a cox....

 arranged for his coxswain to jump overboard at the start of the Stewards' Challenge Cup

Stewards' Challenge Cup

The Stewards' Challenge Cup is a rowing event for men's coxless fours at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs. Two or more clubs may combine to make an entry....

 at Henley Royal Regatta

Henley Royal Regatta

Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held every year on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal Regatta is sometimes referred to as Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage...

to lighten the boat. The unwanted cox narrowly escaped strangulation by the water lilies, but Woodgate and his home-made steering device triumphed by 100 yards and were promptly disqualified. This led to the adoption of Henley Regatta rules specifically prohibiting such conduct and a special prize for four-oared crews without coxswains was offered at the regatta in 1869. However in 1873 the Stewards cup was changed to a coxless four event.