Rowing Merit Badge

Start the badge the right way Milestone

Meet your unit leader, get a counselor and a signed blue card before working with them. That process is the same for every badge and is set out on its own page.

Work to the requirements in force when you start Document

These requirements are republished yearly. A Scout who has already begun may finish under the ones they started with.

Usually comes after Start the badge the right way.

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.

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.

Usually comes after Work to the requirements in force when you start.

1(a). The hazards, and four things to do about each Often forgotten Task

Weather related AND water related hazards, and then four verbs applied to them: anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to. That is four answers per hazard rather than a list of dangers, and the four are the part usually left out.

1(b). Seven injuries and illnesses, three ways each Often forgotten Task

Blisters, hypothermia, heat-related illnesses, dehydration, sunburn, sprains and strains. For every one of the seven: prevention, symptoms AND first-aid treatment. Twenty one answers, in one line of text, and the sunburn and dehydration ones are the two people skip because they sound obvious.

1(c). Safety Afloat, applied to rowing Task

Two jobs. Review the Scouting America Safety Afloat policy, which is a written policy published by Scouting America and not a summary of it. Then explain how it applies to ROWING specifically, which is the actual requirement and needs you to go point by point rather than say it is about being careful.

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.

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.

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.

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.

4(a). Handle a rowboat, five tasks Optional May not apply Task

Alone or with a passenger, in either a fixed-seat or a sliding-seat rowboat, which is why this option settles together with requirement 5. Five parts, all required, and the last one is knots rather than rowing.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

4(b). Compete in a rowing meet Optional May not apply Often forgotten Task

As a team member, in a meet with two or more teams of DIFFERENT sponsors, after at least TEN HOURS of team practice. The team may be sponsored by a school, a club or a Scout unit. A season's commitment, and it takes nothing off requirements 5, 6 or 7.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

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.

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.

4(a)(1). Launch Optional May not apply Task

The shortest step on the badge and the first thing that goes wrong. Getting a boat off a beach or away from a pier without hitting either, with the oars where they should be and everybody where they should be.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

4(a)(2). Row 100 yards, stop, pivot, return Optional May not apply Task

IN A STRAIGHT LINE is the requirement, which is harder than the distance and is what the practice is for. Then a stop, a pivot on the spot, and 100 yards back. Rowing straight is a matter of both oars doing equal work, and everybody discovers their weaker arm here.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

4(a)(3). Backwater 25 yards, turn underway, return Optional May not apply Often forgotten Task

Backing up in a straight line, which means pushing rather than pulling and looking over your shoulder while you do it. Then a turn made while still moving, rather than a pivot from rest, which is a different manoeuvre from the one in 4(a)(2).

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

4(a)(4). Land, and moor or rack the craft Optional May not apply Task

The requirement does not end when the boat touches. Mooring means tying it up properly, which is what the five knots in the next step are for, and racking means putting it away as the place you borrowed it expects.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

4(a)(5). Five mooring knots, two of which nobody has taught you Optional May not apply Often forgotten Task

The only part of 4(a) that is not rowing. Five knots, and the badge calls them MOORING knots because tying the boat up in 4(a)(4) is what they are for: clove hitch, roundturn with two half-hitches, bowline, Wellman's knot, and mooring hitch. Two of the five will be new to everybody present, including whoever is teaching you.

You have not answered "Requirement 4: boat handling, or a competitive meet?" yet.

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.

5(a). Fixed-seat, with a passenger, including sculling Optional May not apply Often forgotten Task

The longer of the two. Come alongside, help a passenger in, pull away, CHANGE POSITIONS with them while afloat, scull over the stern or side, resume rowing, return, help them out. THE ONLY PLACE ON THE BADGE THAT ASKS YOU TO SCULL, and requirement 9(f) is the reading for it.

You have not answered "Requirement 5: fixed-seat with a passenger, or sliding-seat with a buddy?" yet.

5(b). Sliding-seat, with a buddy, twice each way Optional May not apply Task

Come alongside a pier, get out onto it with your buddy assisting, help your buddy into the boat, then reverse the roles and do the whole thing again. Fewer separate skills than 5(a); the difficulty is that a sliding-seat boat is far less forgiving of somebody standing up in it.

You have not answered "Requirement 5: fixed-seat with a passenger, or sliding-seat with a buddy?" yet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

8(a). Craft used in three kinds of rowing Task

Commercial, competitive AND recreational, which is three separate answers. The commercial one is the one people forget exists: working boats that are rowed rather than driven, and the places that still use them.

8(b). Four boatbuilding materials, good and bad Task

Four materials, and for EACH of them some positive and some negative points, which is eight answers. Wood, aluminium, fibreglass and the composites are the usual four, and the comparison worth making is weight against cost against what happens when you hit something.

8(c). Oarlocks, competitive and recreational Often forgotten Task

Two kinds of rowing, and the oarlocks differ because the rowing does. This is the most specific piece of vocabulary on the badge and the one most likely to be answered with a shrug, so look at pictures of both rather than reading about them.

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.

9(a). Why oars are feathered Task

The ADVANTAGE of feathering, which is a why rather than a what. Turning the blade flat on the recovery does two things, one of them about wind and one about water, and an answer that names only the first has named the smaller of the two.

9(b). Strong winds, heavy waves, and rough water handling Often forgotten Task

Two halves: the precautions, which are decisions made before you go out, and the boat-handling procedures, which are what you do when the decision was wrong. THIS IS THE PART THAT DECIDES WHETHER A SESSION HAPPENS, so read it before you book the waterfront rather than after.

9(c). Fitting out, maintaining, and storing for winter Often forgotten Task

Three jobs across two seasons: fitting a boat out at the start of the season, maintaining it during it, and preparing and storing it for winter. The winter half is the one people have never seen done, and it is half the requirement.

9(d). How to determine the proper length of oars Task

A real calculation rather than an opinion, and it is worth doing before requirement 4, because oars that are wrong for the boat are the commonest reason a beginner cannot row in a straight line. The measurement depends on the boat rather than on the rower.

9(e). Fixed-seat against sliding-seat rowing Task

The difference that requirements 4 and 5 are asking you to demonstrate with your hands, so doing this one first makes both of them make sense. It is not only the seat: the stroke, the muscles used and what the boat is for all change with it.

9(f). What sculling means, in both kinds of rowing Often forgotten Task

The shortest of the seven to state and the easiest to get half right, because the word means one thing to a sliding-seat rower and something quite unrelated to a fixed-seat one. Requirement 5(a) asks you to demonstrate the fixed-seat meaning, which makes this the one part of requirement 9 that pays for itself twice.

9(g). The health benefits of rowing for exercise Task

The shortest of the seven and the easiest to answer generically. What makes it specific is that rowing uses far more of the body than most exercise and does it without the joint loading that running has, which is why it appears in rehabilitation as well as in sport.

Counselor signs it off Milestone

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