2025/05 Measurements of blade pitch

Did you know that oar pitch generally increases from the blade tip toward the shaft? For reliable results, always measure it at the same point on the blade and at the same height relative to the boat.

Many rowers and coaches still prefer to measure the pitch directly at the blade. To do this, they hang a weight on a string attached to the top edge of the blade, and measure the distance between the string and the bottom edge of the blade. They then derive the blade pitch angle using conversion tables based on the measured distance and the blade’s width.

To make this process more efficient and accurate, we upgraded our BioRow Pitch Meter so that it can now be mounted directly on the blade to measure its pitch angle in degrees. The original function of measuring pitch at the pin remains available, so you can now quickly switch between these two types of measurements without altering the meter. Our customers have responded very positively to this innovation.

However, the blade pitch depends on the location where it is measured, because its edges are not parallel. Additionally, if the blade is positioned higher or lower relative to the boat, the pitch changes. This raises two questions:

1. At what point on the blade should pitch be measured?
2. At what height should the blade be positioned to accurately represent the pitch during rowing?

To answer these questions, we investigated blade pitch in four types of sculling oars: Concept2 Smooth, Fat2, Comp and Wintech RDS. The blade pitch during on-water rowing consists of two components:

1. Gate pitch – the angle of the gate’s load face relative to the vertical plane.
2. Oar pitch – the angle between the load face of the collar and the blade.

Since the first component does not depend on an oar type, we measured only the second one – the oar pitch – at four points along the blade (three points for the Comp blade, as it is shorter), starting from the top edge (0 cm) and at 10 cm intervals toward the shaft, and repeated it at three different shaft angles:

1. 0° – horizontal shaft position;
2. 10° down – typically, at this angle, the blade center is at water level (0° in biomechanics), and the outer edge is vertical;
3. 20° down – the deepest blade placement, with about one blade width submerged from the top edge to the surface.

The data obtained show significant variation in oar pitch, depending on the two factors above. Oar manufacturers claim to set oar pitch to zero, but this is only accurate at a specific point on the blade and depends on how the measurement is taken. For example:

• For Concept2 Smooth and Fat2 oars, pitch is zero at 10 cm from the tip, when measured perpendicularly to the shaft.
• For Comp and Wintech RDS oars, pitch is zero at the tip of the blade, also when measured perpendicularly to the shaft.

As the bottom line:

1. A point 20 cm from the tip (15 cm for Comp blades) provides the most consistent pitch readings across different blade heights.
2. Average pitch increases by about 0.7° when the shaft angle changes from 10° to 20°, when the blade is placed deeper in the water, which may help to keep the blade in an optimal depth. This effect is lower for the Fat2 (0.4°) and higher for the Comp and RDS blades (0.9°), which may be practically significant.
3. When averaging all 24 measured points on both port and starboard sides, Fat2 oars have the lowest average pitch of +1.4°, Smooth +1.9°, and both Comp and RDS oars – the highest +3.2°. Thus, the latter two types have over one degree more pitch, a difference worth considering when switching between oars.

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©2025 Dr. Valery Kleshnev