FAQ
Why did you make this rather large and unwieldy project?
Over Christmas vacation in my freshman year of college, while I was a coxswain on the crew team, I made little models of a kayak and a rowing single, each about eight inches long, both of which were highly inaccurate but fun to make. I thought that making the real thing, a close-to-accurate 8+ rowing shell, would be a good project, and we had the power tools to make this goal attainable. I like to make things out of wood -- I have made boxes, a train, a convertible, numerous signs, even a totem pole -- so I am always looking for a challenge. I always want to know if I am capable of accomplishing certain things, and in this case, it seems that I did.
Does it float?
Probably, since it's made almost entirely of wood, but I don't intend to put it in the water just to check.
Why don't they have faces?
If the rowers had faces, that would be the focus of a viewer's attention -- "ooh, they're so cute! Look, this one almost looks like it's smiling!" Also, then I would have to consider things like hair, which would be too complicated and quite unnecessary. My intention in this project was not to make something cute, so they don't have faces. The coxswain is not that cute.
Where is it now?
At school in my locked room, in a safe place. If you are at Williams and want to see it, let me know and I'll be happy to show it to you.
What are you going to do with it?
My mother wants to hang it diagonally on the wall. I plan to someday suspend it from the ceiling. If the Williams athletics department wants to display it, they can contact me -- contact me about borrowing it, that is; I'm keeping the boat.