Strachan started rowing in 1944 and is still deeply involved in the sport as a coach 67 years later.
At the age of 88, he still coaches and acts as a talent spotter in Otago for Rowing New Zealand.
"I still have the energy to do it and am far from decrepit," Strachan said from his home in Twizel yesterday.
He has had a few days off rowing between Christmas and New Year and has had time to work in his garden.
But from next Tuesday, it will be all go as the rowers move back into town for a month of intensive training at Lake Ruataniwha.
Strachan will then spend between seven and eight hours a day helping crews in the intensive heat of a Twizel day when temperatures regularly reach 33degC.
Strachan has been coaching Otago Boys' High School crews for the past 14 years and it will be full-on when they are domiciled at their base at the Lake Ruataniwha camping ground.
He will also help crews from Columba College, Otago Girls' High School and St Kevin's, and Eachan Bruce, from Wanaka, when they have training camps in Twizel, and mentor coaches from club crews that train at the lake.
He will be heavily involved with his school crews until the Maadi Cup in April and will travel to London for the Olympic Games in July.
He has been asked to help Otago University crews prepare for invitation regattas overseas this year.
"I expect to have a busy 2012 and a busy 2013," Strachan said.
He stepped down from the national selection panel in 1988, but his opinion is still canvassed by the national selectors when they name New Zealand crews.
In 2004, Strachan was brought back into the national scheme to mentor New Zealand crews and co-ordinate the coaching strategy.
He is not directly involved with New Zealand crews now but his expertise will be used again when the Southern RPC crews train at Lake Ruataniwha for a month in January.
Strachan does not know why he has so much energy to put into rowing while other people people 20 or 30 years younger have opted for the comfortable life.
"I'm blowed if I know what my secret is," Strachan said. "I suppose it's persistence.
"I'm very active in association with younger people and that brings my age down and raises theirs.
"I'm just fully active in everything I do and every day of the week. That probably helps my longevity."
Long and active life seems to be built into the Strachan genes.
He had two sisters who lived into their nineties and an aunt who became a centenarian.
"We are a pretty long-lived family so I have picked the right genes," he quipped.
Strachan's hand touched New Zealand rowing for the first time in 1966 when he teamed with Don Rowlands and Rusty Robertson to devise a plan to make New Zealand oarsmen competitive internationally.
Before then, the few crews who competed overseas were generally the winning club crews from the national championships.
Strachan was adamant New Zealand would never do any good until it put the best people in one boat. And he told rowers the only way they would row for their country was in the glamour event, the eight-oared boat.
Strachan has had a lot of success in the sport but is adamant that "the changing of the selection process in New Zealand rowing" is his greatest achievement.
"That set New Zealand on the track to success and is largely contributable to the success that New Zealand rowing has today."
It was not a popular move at the time and rowers began defecting, unwilling to train under Rusty Robertson in Christchurch.
"It was controversial at the time. There were a lot of people against the innovation," Strachan said.
"I was pleased I had a hand in cementing the scheme. It had a big impact and I think it started New Zealand rowing on the road to international success."
The new scheme had early success when the New Zealand eight beat the East Germans to win the North American championships in 1967.
Olympic gold medals followed when the four won the Olympic title in Mexico City in 1968 and the eight won in Munich in 1972.
It was the beginning of a golden era in New Zealand rowing.
