The catch angle in particular should be set and maintained through any gearing adjustment and should not become a variable. In crew boats, differences in the reach of the individual crewmembers should be accommodated by different span settings. All crewmembers should row the same cord length. Because the oar is a lever of the second order the spoon remains stationary and the boat moves past the spoon.

With a shorter oar and narrower span rowers can still produce the same cord length. In a crew boat this means they will be able to keep in phase. This can be done in two ways, keeping the blades parallel illustrated by the black and blue lines. This will require reducing the length of the outboard by the same amount as the span giving a limited range of adjustment.

The second method is to increase the arc of the shorter oar to achieve the same cord length illustrated by the red line.

The rate at which the boat passes a fixed point will depend on the sum of the power applied by the crewmembers. All members of the crew will pass the fixed point at the same rate regardless of whether they are applying the same power. Maximum power can only be achieved if the peak power generated by the oarsmen coincides with that of their colleagues. Rowing through the same cord length at the same time is the best way to achieve this.