Olympic 8 man rowing - Why was the Canadian boat rigged differently from the others?

Question

In eight man rowing, the Canadian boat was rigged so that the oars, counting from front to back were: left, right, left, right, right, left, right, left. All the other boats in the final were rigged in a perfect alternating fashion of either left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right or vice versa. Since Canada won the gold medal, maybe this rigging helped them do it. Perhaps it reduces directional torque from the oars. I really don't know. Does anybody have any idea why they would rig the boat this way?

Answer 1

Yes I found this interesting too - many of the fours had 'strange' combinations such as left, left, right right and one boat had left, right, right, left.  I guess it's how ever you want to build up what you see as strength - you tend to put the strong, heavy pullers in the middle.

Answer 2

its due to the strength and weight of the rowers.You want your boat to be balanced weight wise therefore you want the force to be equal left to right which may mean alternating in diffrent form than other boats.

Answer 3

This sounds like a pretty lame excuse for your country to not win... I'm laughing out lout right now.

directional torque...

If it was going to help them win, Beijing wouldn't have allowed it.