Sunday 21 December 2008

Why sliding seat boats should be long

Phil Meakins, organiser of last week's row up the Hamble, has kindly sent me some more pictures. Here is one of me putting a bit of pressure on in Snarleyow. I hadn't realised how much the boat pitches when the rower moves - it really looks as if it is about to take off. The motion must waste a lot of energy. Longer is definitely better (up to a point, of course).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris, I noticed the same thing when you powered past me at the Cotswold meet.

Too much power! I actually wondered if it is more a question of volume in the stern. Just a bit more volume would be more drag at low speed but would hold up the stern more when putting on the power.

It will be really good to compare how Snipefish behaves with her wider stern at the same speeds.

Tool some pictures of a Laser skiff yesterday - did not realise that the seat if fixed and it has a sliding outrigger system. Will e-mail pics.

BrianP

Anonymous said...

A sliding rigger would solve this problem. Not only a bit more efficient than a sliding seat but body weight stays in the same place. Leg movement is balanced out by back swing. I've been using sliding riggers rowing on the sea out of Clovelly in North Devon for the past four years. They work well!

Paul Z

Anonymous said...

We are building two Snipefish, an Iain Oughtred sliding seat design. I was wondering, if we make up a sliding outrigger design just what would be the correct placement of the seat and rigger. does the fixed seat go in the middle of what would have been the forward and aft positions of the sliding seat? Then work out the rigger movement from there?
Brian

Anonymous said...

The seat should be positioned for the best fore and aft boat trim when the rower is seated with knees drawn up. This should be about the same as the midway position of the sliding seat travel.

Paul Z

Anonymous said...

Animation of the sliding rigger system here and sliding seat here

http://slidingrigger.net/principle.html#

Brian