Rowing Merit Badge

Nine requirements drawn so that the swimmer test is seen as the gate on four of them rather than as one more line to sign, so the seventeen steps it does not block are visible to a Scout who cannot yet pass it, and so the two knots nobody has ever been taught are found before the day at the waterfront rather than on it.

10 steps (22 parts inside them). 9 parts depend on questions you have not answered yet. · Version 1, published 13 August 2026 · About Rowing Merit Badge

No questions answered

This is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering the 2 questions at the address above takes out the parts that are not for you.

Which of this applies to you

You have not answered anything yet, so this is the whole plan: everything that could apply to anybody. Answering 2 short questions will take out the parts that are not for you.

Answer the questions

The steps

Stage 1 of 10

1 step

1. Hazards, first aid and Safety Afloat Requirement

Three parts, all required, all dry, and none of them gated by the swimmer test. This is the requirement to do on the first evening, because 1(b) and 1(c) between them are most of what makes the day on the water go safely.
3 parts
- 1(a). The hazards, and four things to do about each Often forgotten
- 1(b). Seven injuries and illnesses, three ways each Often forgotten
- 1(c). Safety Afloat, applied to rowing

Stage 2 of 10

1 step

2. The swimmer test, which gates four requirements Often forgotten Requirement

THE GATE ON THE WHOLE WET HALF OF THIS BADGE. It is not a rowing test and your counselor does not give it. It is a swimming test, conducted by somebody qualified to run one, and it can be passed months before this badge is started or on the first morning of summer camp.

THIS ONE REQUIREMENT DECIDES WHETHER FOUR OTHERS CAN HAPPEN, AND IT NAMES THEM: 4, 5, 6 and 7. Between them those four are every minute this badge spends in a boat. THE TEST IS NOT TAKEN HERE AND IS NOT YOUR COUNSELOR'S TO GIVE. It is the Scouting America swimmer test, conducted by a qualified person: at summer camp on the first day, at a council or district aquatics session, or by anyone your unit has who is authorised to run it. Book it separately and early. WHAT IT IS NOT BLOCKING MATTERS AS MUCH. Requirements 1, 3, 8 and 9 are not on the list, which is seventeen of this badge's thirty one steps, all of them dry. A Scout who cannot yet pass the test can start this badge today and do everything except the boat work.

Stage 3 of 10

1 step

3. Life jackets, chosen and fitted Requirement

Three jobs, and the first two are why the third matters: the characteristics of the jackets most appropriate for ROWING, why one must ALWAYS be worn, and then a demonstration of selecting and fitting one. NOT GATED BY THE SWIM TEST, so it can be done at any waterside session or on dry land.

Stage 4 of 10

1 step

4. Handle a boat, or race one Often forgotten Requirement

One of two, and the two are nothing like the same size. Both need the swimmer test passed first, because requirement 2 names this requirement by number. Read them both before choosing: one is a single well organised session, and the other runs for weeks and ends on somebody else's race day.

Usually comes after 2. The swimmer test, which gates four requirements.

THE TWO OPTIONS HERE ARE AN AFTERNOON AND A SEASON, AND THE LONGER ONE BUYS YOU NOTHING. 4(a) is launch, row 100 yards and back, backwater 25 yards, land and moor, and tie five knots, which is one well organised session. 4(b) asks you to compete as a member of a rowing team at a meet involving two or more teams with DIFFERENT sponsors, after at least TEN HOURS of team practice beforehand. CHOOSING 4(b) DOES NOT EXCUSE YOU FROM ANYTHING. Requirements 5, 6 and 7 are all still required and all three are boat work: coming alongside a pier, a swamped boat drill in deep water, and rowing out to a swimmer and towing them home. So the competitive rower has more water time ahead of them, not less. Choose 4(b) because you already row and the meet is happening anyway, never to save effort.
7 parts
- 4(a). Handle a rowboat, five tasks Optional May not apply
- 4(a)(1). Launch Optional May not apply
- 4(a)(2). Row 100 yards, stop, pivot, return Optional May not apply
- 4(a)(3). Backwater 25 yards, turn underway, return Optional May not apply Often forgotten
- 4(a)(4). Land, and moor or rack the craft Optional May not apply
- 4(a)(5). Five mooring knots, two of which nobody has taught you Optional May not apply Often forgotten TWO OF THESE FIVE KNOTS EXIST NOWHERE ELSE IN SCOUTS BSA ADVANCEMENT. The clove hitch and the bowline are in the rank requirements, and the roundturn with two half hitches is in Pioneering, so most Scouts arrive knowing three of the five. WELLMAN'S KNOT AND THE MOORING HITCH EACH APPEAR EXACTLY ONCE IN THE WHOLE REQUIREMENTS BOOK, AND IT IS HERE. Nobody in your troop learned them for a rank, a lashing or another badge, and the person teaching you to row may well be meeting them for the first time too. LEARN THOSE TWO AT HOME, sitting down, with a short piece of line, before you go anywhere near a waterfront. A pier is a bad classroom: it is windy, the line is wet and stiff, somebody is holding a boat, and there is no reason to spend that time on something you could have learned in a chair.
- 4(b). Compete in a rowing meet Optional May not apply Often forgotten

Stage 5 of 10

1 step

5. Alongside a pier, and it depends which boat you can get Requirement

One of two, and they are different exercises rather than two versions of one. 5(a) is a passenger, a change of places while afloat, and sculling. 5(b) is getting out and in twice with a buddy. Gated by the swimmer test, and worth settling early because requirement 4(a) needs a boat as well.

Usually comes after 2. The swimmer test, which gates four requirements.

WHAT DECIDES THIS ANSWER IS WHICH BOAT YOU CAN GET NEAR, NOT WHICH EXERCISE YOU PREFER. 5(a) needs a FIXED-SEAT rowboat and a passenger; 5(b) needs a SLIDING-SEAT rowboat and a buddy. Scout camps, liveries and most public boathouses have fixed-seat boats, so 5(a) is the camp answer. Sliding-seat boats live at rowing clubs, so 5(b) is the club answer. SETTLE THIS BEFORE YOU PLAN REQUIREMENT 4(a), because 4(a) is done in either kind and there is no sense arranging two different boats for one badge. The two exercises are not equivalent, either: 5(a) asks for a passenger helped in and out, a change of positions while afloat, and sculling, while 5(b) is getting out and in twice with a buddy in a boat that is far less forgiving of anybody standing up in it.
2 parts
- 5(a). Fixed-seat, with a passenger, including sculling Optional May not apply Often forgotten
- 5(b). Sliding-seat, with a buddy, twice each way Optional May not apply

Stage 6 of 10

1 step

6. Swamped boat drill, and why you stay with the boat Often forgotten Requirement

Righting the craft, stabilizing it, reboarding IN DEEP WATER, and then making headway in a boat full of water. Then explain why you stay with a swamped boat, which is the part that is knowledge rather than skill and the part that saves lives. Needs deep water, supervision, and a boat you are allowed to swamp.

Usually comes after 2. The swimmer test, which gates four requirements.

THIS IS THE REQUIREMENT THAT NEEDS THE MOST ARRANGING AND SOUNDS THE MOST ROUTINE. A swamped boat drill needs deep water, supervision, and a boat that somebody is willing to let you fill with water, and the third of those is the one that turns out to be difficult anywhere except a camp waterfront. Ask early. THE PARTS ARE RIGHTING, STABILIZING, REBOARDING IN DEEP WATER AND MAKING HEADWAY, and the last one surprises people: a swamped boat still moves, slowly and heavily, and the point of the drill is that it does. THE FINAL SENTENCE IS THE ONE TO LEARN PROPERLY. Why you stay with a swamped boat is knowledge rather than skill, and it is the piece of this badge most likely to matter one day: a boat floats, holds you up, is visible from a distance and does not get tired.

Stage 7 of 10

1 step

7. Row to a swimmer and tow them in Often forgotten Requirement

The only requirement on the badge you do entirely alone in the boat, and the only one that needs somebody else to get into the water. Push off, twenty yards out, a pivot, a tow home. The rowing is the easy half of it: what is actually being tested is handling a boat while talking to a person in the water.

Usually comes after 2. The swimmer test, which gates four requirements.

THIS NEEDS A SECOND PERSON IN THE WATER, SO IT IS ARRANGED RATHER THAN TURNED UP TO. You are alone in the boat, and somebody else has to be willing to be the swimmer 20 yards out. THE TWO PARTS THAT ARE ACTUALLY BEING TESTED ARE NOT THE ROWING. First, giving INSTRUCTIONS to the swimmer while you manoeuvre, which is the part that keeps them calm and keeps them clear of the boat and the oars. Second, pivoting so they can hold on to the STERN rather than the side, because a person pulling on the gunwale of a small boat can capsize it and a person on the stern cannot. Then tow them to shore, which is slow and is meant to be. Practise the pivot before the day, because doing it while talking to somebody in the water is harder than doing it in silence.

Stage 8 of 10

1 step

8. Describe three things about boats Requirement

All three parts required, all three dry, none gated by the swimmer test. This and requirement 9 are the pile of work that can be finished at home before anybody goes near water.
3 parts

Stage 9 of 10

1 step

9. Seven discussion topics, and the largest dry job on the badge Requirement

All seven required, not one of them gated by the swimmer test, and not one of them needing water. Seven separate topics makes this the longest requirement on the badge, and the only one that can be finished from start to end at home while somebody else is finding you a boat.
7 parts
- 9(a). Why oars are feathered
- 9(b). Strong winds, heavy waves, and rough water handling Often forgotten
- 9(c). Fitting out, maintaining, and storing for winter Often forgotten
- 9(d). How to determine the proper length of oars
- 9(e). Fixed-seat against sliding-seat rowing
- 9(f). What sculling means, in both kinds of rowing Often forgotten
- 9(g). The health benefits of rowing for exercise

Stage 10 of 10

1 step

Counselor signs it off Milestone

The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.

Usually comes after 9. Seven discussion topics, and the largest dry job on the badge.

Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.

This plan is a planning aid: the current Boy Scouts of America publication is always the authority, and the sources used here are listed in full. Each step names its own.