I rowed in a 4 and 8 in college. As we were a club sport, we didn't get much funding from the school. As a result we had numerous ancient watercraft with some newer boats in the mix. It was always a joy to get to row in the newer boats, of course, as they were lighter and stronger.

We also had a thing called the "twinkie test". Rowing is a sport where everyone needs to be in perfect sync and "pulling their own weight". If you could replace a rower with a twinkie and the boat went faster, then it was fair to say you weren't contributing enough.