Rochester Rowing Club

Any rower with an oar in each hand is “sculling”. Rowing with one oar in both hands is called “sweep”, but one would just say “rowing”, not “sweeping” or “sweep rowing”.

Although technically “crew team” is redundant, it has become the popular expression. So one joins “the crew team”. One rows with a crew. The crew is all the people in a boat, including the coxswain if there is one. The team is the group of all the crews.

Sculling boats:

A single scull or single
A double scull or double
A quadruple scull or quad

Sweep boats:

A pair
A four
An eight

In schedules and results, the following symbols apply:

‘+’ means with coxswain
‘-‘ means without coxswain – commonly referred to as “straight” as in “straight four”
‘x’ means a sculling boat – in the US, sculling boats are almost never coxed

i.e.

1x – single
2x – double
4x – quad
2- – pair
4- – straight four
4+ – coxed four
8+ – eight (coxed is implied, you would never row an 8 without a cox).

Some expressions you might hear:
“John Smith sculled his way to a silver medal.”
“John Smith rowed his single to a silver medal.”
“The Rochester junior women’s pair rowed well.”
“The Rochester junior women’s double rowed well.”
“The Rochester varsity boys’ eight placed third.”
“The entire crew was pleased with the result.”