There is an official shorthand for the different boat types:
1,2,4 or 8 is the number of active rowers.
A ‘x’ tells that the boat is a scull. If there is no x it is a sweep boat.
A ‘+’ means that it there is a cox, a ‘-‘ means that you have to do without and rely on some foot based steering from the bow seat. It also means that you don’t have the weight of the cox, so not all bad.
Examples:
4x- is coxless scull boat with 4 rowers
2- is a coxless pair sweep boat with 2 rowers
4+ is a coxed sweep boat with 4 rowers
There are also prefixes that can be used for Men, Women, Juniors and Light or Heavyweight Crews.