Reddit reviews High Performance Rowing

Boat Race before last the bowman of the winning boat was 5'10", huge heart and lungs, and weighed in the mid 80's (KGs) if I recall, so built pretty solid.

To go sub 6 is the elite standard, but don't forget weight adjustment, there's no point going sub 6 mins if you weight 200kg, no one's going to enjoy dragging a hippo in thier boat if he's not pulling his own weight and then some, the calculator and an explanation of weight adjustment are available here http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/weight_adjustment.asp
Train on sliders, or take out a single, there is 10x the chance of an injury in land training than on the water.
long steady pieces are also good, don't even go for distance, just sit on an erg for 30 mins, an hour or even 90 mins, it won't wreck you because it shouldn't, but it will improve your times.

READ: You're going to have to live and breath rowing, I'd recomend the following (Not that I've read them all, but i've ordered them and almost finished the original print of Rowing Faster)

http://www.amazon.com/Rowing-Faster-2nd-Volker-Nolte/dp/0736090401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314681440&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Rowing-John-McArthur/dp/1861260393/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b http://www.amazon.com/Lactate-Threshold-Training-Peter-Janssen/dp/0736037551/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314681471&sr=1-1

You're gonna need to know more about rowing and training than anyone on the team, because the hours you'll be putting in will make you your own coach.

Great book written for coaches http://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Rowing-John-McArthur/dp/1861260393