Rowing has two disciplines: Sweep rowing and Sculling.  Sweep rowing is one large oar per person.  Sculling uses two smaller oars.

The smallest sweep boat is the pair.  The pair is the purest, most demanding team boat.  Just to row a straight course in a pair is a challenge. Other boats in the sweep are the four with coxswain, the four without coxswain, and the eight.  A coxswain is the chief of the boat, who like a jockey on a racehorse helps the crew with coaching during practice, strategy during a race, and motivation always.

A pair is about 32 feet long, a four about 48, and an eight about 62 feet long.  An eight can achieve a four minute mile and can sprint to speeds in excess of 20 miles per hour.

Sculling is generally done in boats of one, two, or four places.  There are a few eight place sculls, called octuple sculls.  Using two smaller oars for each rower, a fast sculler can approach a five minute mile in a single scull, and a good quadruple scull can approach the speed of a sweep eight.

A racing single scull is somewhere around 26 feet long, about 9" wide and weighs in at just over 30 pounds.