2000 Hudson 1x vs new boat.

[charlieo...@gmail.com]

I have a 2000 Hudson lightweight single. It's been a great boat and is still in great shape, however I wonder if a new shell has any speed advantage. Opinions?

[Richard Mooers]

On Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 9:30:44 PM UTC-6, charlieo...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have a 2000 Hudson lightweight single. It's been a great boat and is still in great shape, however I wonder if a new shell has any speed advantage. Opinions?

This question is very relevant to me. My boat is the same, but its limit is 135# and I'm never less than 140. I've recently decided to try a 2003 Hudson Lwt single (145# max) but am concerned about a comment I once heard that Hudson changed the hull shape after 2000, with disappointing results. I'm hoping for a good discussion by the wizards on this list, but I suspect that I'll read that "It's the rower, not the boat, that makes for speed."

[wmar...@gmail.com]

Up to a certain level of performance, it's the rower more than the boat, but at the higher end, you need a good boat under you, too. Hudson has made some engineering changes to their hull shapes in recent years (the super predator series) that are supposed to provide for better speed when you're at race pace. I.e., at steady-state training paces there's no advantage, but at speed they're supposed to ride up in the water a little (almost like planing, but rowing shells don't go that fast and don't have planing hulls)... I haven't seen a lot of these in action so I can't provide any feedback based on working with their new boats..

[sully]

Not sure if this helps the OP.

I have been repeating this as well, W., and it's been my long experience.

But do you think it holds true with overall boat speed, or more to do with the quality of rowing?

or both somehow?

the culture here expects that if you are going to race, it better be in a newer boat, newer=faster. My observation from the masters is that they all believe this is true, they think they're going faster.

One masters woman at our club has been kicking ass at masters racing over the past 4-5 years, and if had gone to a competitive level training plan a few years ago, would be a nat'l team candidate. She insisted that when she bought her new fluid that it made her a lot faster than the beat up ancient Kaschper she'd raced, or the Maas trainer before that.

So I went back and looked up her past results, looked up her erg scores, etc, and learned that when she started at the club, she hadn't trained in rowing since college 7-8 years before, she's stayed in shape but not really training. She's an excellent athlete, a pretty average sculler, and you could see her on water racing exactly track her ergometer improvement as she gradually trained her way into very good fitness.

I've seen evidence of a sculler going faster when swapping one racing hull for another, seemingly where it must mean that the hull he selected must be better. Yet I've seen another sculler jump in his previous hull and beat him in his new one. They were similar athletes (nat'l team), and very average scullers.

The human mental part, and physiological parts of rowing contain such huge variances for an individual, a far bigger spread than the differences between a couple modern hull designs, or the differences between a new and ten year old boat. If the boat is still effectively transfering the power, if the hull is straight and finish good, if the boat weight is within a few pounds, I've yet to figure out what can be "faster" about a new boat.

Newer boats go faster than quality old boats because the rowers believe they will.

[Jim Dwyer]

I am switching from a Hudson Mid+ to a Mid Hudson or Fluid. I have rowed
all 3 boats and the mid is easier for me to balance and I think will be a
little faster because of that fact. If I can relax and not spend any extra
energy balancing the boat I will have more energy at the end of the race to
make it go faster.

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[sully]

THis makes a lot of sense to me, you're rowed the boats and one seems to have advantages for you. Have you checked the rigs on all three? This seems like an obvious thing to do, but a lot of ppl don't think to do this first.

[Jim Dwyer]

Yes. The Hudson has a bow mounted rigger and I moved it into the bow as far
as possible. It would be nice if I could move it further into the bow and
try it that. My boat has a stern mounted rigger.
The Fluid was an older one and I will be trying out a newer one that has
wider tracks and an oval tube rigger.
I would also like to try the Hudson lwt boat to confirm that it is too small
for me.



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