“It was the heyday of heavyweight crew,” Crick said. “We had a great run back then. We won the [Eastern] Sprints three times. We were national champions twice. We also went to [the Henley Royal Regatta] a couple times. We raced in the Grand Challenge in ’87 and the Ladies Plate in ’86. We also went to the World University Games in ’87. I was lucky to be there with some very good, talented rowers.”

When Crick graduated in 1988, he continued to work in the rowing world. He coached the Tufts crew, the Vermont women’s crew and served as the head coach at union. All the while, Crick worked on building better boats.

“I never quite got out of the sport,” Crick said. “I kept trying but I never succeeded. I kept rebuilding boats and I realized that I liked building more than coaching.”

And a new company was born. Elite Boatworks launched on Oct. 20, 2000 at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge and the first boat hit the water last April. Since then, the boats have spread to Cambridge and beyond.

“Crews that would not normally look at a new boat look at them after other crews start using them,” said sophomore lightweight Alex Binkley. “That’s the way it is with new technology in rowing. One crew starts using it and the other crews start.”

Binkley, who rowed last season in the first freshman lightweight boat, is a veteran rower who is expanding his niche in the sport by designing boats of his own.

“I’ve rowed a lot and I like building things,” Binkley said. “I’ve learned a lot about the physics of the boat. I used to think, ‘OK, the thing’s floating, I’m glad. Oh, the boat’s nice and stiff,’ but I never knew why.”

Binkley, for his sake, has since learned the cause of such phenomena. He has been building his own single since his senior year in high school, when he began the task as a senior project. In exchange for space and materials, Binkley started working at Stillwater Designs, where he found the mold for his single.