Racing Shell

Hello, I am new around here, in fact this is my first time posting, anyway I am in the process of trying to find plans for building a wooden race style rowing shell. I am haveing a very hard time finding any good plans. I was able to fins some plans for recreational shells, but no racing ones. Any help as to where I could find some plans would be greatly appreciated.

 

It seems to me that for racing rowing shells ( I assume that you mean the fully elite shells like at the olympics) you won't get any plans as these are always professionally built. The other thing about a shell of this standard is that it is a very specialized high tech construction. An amateur built version might look a bit similar but would not be competitive! Therefore no plans available to my knowledge.

 

Probably the closest you will get to a competitive shell is Graeme King's "Kingfisher" design. Plans are sold through WoodenBoat at www.woodenboat.com

 

Here is a simple first one. Not racing as you requested but fairly svelt trainer.


http://www.clcboats.com/boats/oxford.php

Or try these guys:
http://www.rowableclassics.com/

Maybe if you could locate for example a Pocock cold molded racing boat you could take the basic construction methods and design your own. Or a restoration?

 

To my experience, Stampfli, Owen and Douglas were the wooden singles that stayed competitive the longest ("longest" as in into the age of composites, not lifetime of the shell). -though Douglas had/has a Kevlar inner skin- you might find those interesting to look at for ideas as you explore available plans. Hudson was also still building wooden singles quite recently.

-JPC

 

Thank you for all the great ideas. I was also wonder how hard it would be to take the Graeme King plans and change them to be longer and narrower as to be more race oriented. Thanks again for all the help.

 

It is not that hard to change the dimensions of a simple plan, as I assume that this would be, but you risk a number of things doing this. Firstly it may not have the stability to row as well as the original; and the dimensions are already fairly racy. Secondly it may not necessarily be faster as the wetted surface area of the hull, the main drag component in a rowing shell may even go up. A mistake in one new dimension while building could cause a distortion in the lines making the hull virtually useless. If you are racing, then you need to know what sort of shells the competition is using. If theirs is the full on pro racer, this design, modified or not, still wont be competitive. For fast recreation or just racing for fun, good handling is as important as speed, and I woudnt change the standard plan.