Rowing Illustrated

I was reading the thread about "How Fast Have Rowers Become?" on the General forum, and after short talk about boat keels, I'm curious.

I realize that a weighted keel on a rowing shell is probably not the best idea, because of weight considerations and the lack of usefulness with respect to righting moment (as opposed to sailboats). Wondering if the skeg design is really a big deal. Seems to me there are some curvy looking ones (like the Rez 8+ or the surfboard style ones sometimes seen on BBG's), and then there's the Empacher with the straight edge geometric shape. This seems to me that it really isn't that big a deal. It seems to me that if there is a larger surface area fore/aft (a la Empacher) it would be more effective at straight-line rowing, but tougher to turn with. The surfboard style just the opposite.

Any other radical designs used? How about a small hydrofoil type? If you can overcome the wetted surface drag with a sufficient amount of lift, it might be beneficial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U95UReP4mdo

Can't let those kayakers have all the fun.

Yea, I've seen that before... sort of an extreme case. Also sort of wondering how much skeg a boat really needs to track straight... seems to me that you don't need much, as long as you apply even pressure.

you have clearly never lost a skeg before.....you need them, especially in singles

Not saying you don't need them, I've seen the consequences (never done it). Just wondering about how little you can get away with to reduce wetted surface.

missing

CarpeCursusII wrote:You can get away with something very small, on of our coaches actually cut off about 4 inches from a Rez skeg so we can row when the river is only 1.5feet deep. My question would come from making skegs thinner, look at a Rez vs Vespoli skeg, Vespolis are a good 1/4 in thick vs rez which at much less, any benefit in the lack of frontal surface area?

second note ive noticed that vespoli's kick Rez a$$ when it comes to the tight turn say at milwaukee or HOCR and just during practice as our team has both a Heavy Rez and a DXL Vespoli. Any insight?

With the first resolute we got in Boston, the rudder was a tiny little postage stamp on the skeg that could not turn on the Charles. Great for a straight buoyed course (the coxswain would have to work to mess up the steering on a straight course). But for the head season, we ended up putting in a rudder that looked like a dagger - narrower and longer... and we could spin around Weeks footbridge with no pressure changes. The first time our coxswain went through the Weeks bridge, I felt the boat skid around that turn (she had not expected it to respond with such a sudden sharp turn) and our coxswain giggled through the row while we adjusted to the fact that the boat could hit every turn without any pressure calls. I am not sure if they still swap rudders for different seasons or if they use a new skeg/rudder that is not as tiny as the original but does not quite spin/skid around turns on a dime like the dagger one (it was an experiment back then when we swapped rudders on the rez because it was so much harder to turn than the vespolis).

I believe the resolutes ship with two different skegs now, the longer dagger skeg for head racing and the smaller one for 2k

x

The little carbon skeg I saw on the Empacher MEX S-15 at HOCR was the tinyest skeg I have seen on a boat, It looks like it would cause a lot less drag. It was an expensive extra. It would be time consuming but easy to cut the aluminum one dow to that size.

You'd think that hydrofoil Kayak would be awesome for open water paddeling. Wouldn't it take openwater going to a whole new speed level? It must be pretty fatiguing keeping it up on the foil.

My Filippi has the traditional aluminum polygon skeg. Last spring I put on the Filippi carbon skeg; I chose the one with the 45 degree angle. It is smaller and better designed. Alex warned me that it was fragile, however. I didn’t feel any speed differences, but in current or turbulence there was less stern yaw. Then one morning my low regatta slings toppled on some uneven ground and in slow-mo my single settled on the stern breaking the carbon skeg at the base. I’m back to the more reliable aluminum skeg, but wish Filippi would make a stronger design for the carbon version. (The problem is not the fin itself, but the thin carbon piece that fits into the slot.)