AUTHOR=van Nieuwburg W. C. A. M. , van Spreuwel B. J. J. , Tran M. T. K. , Yang M. D. , Greidanus A. , Mulder G. , Tummers M. J. , Westerweel J. , Suijker W. , van Wijk R. 

TITLE=Improving rowing performance by adjusting oar blade size and angle

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2023.1109494

DOI=10.3389/fspor.2023.1109494

ISSN=2624-9367

ABSTRACT=<p>The principal aim of the work presented here is to investigate and demonstrate that a forward tilted rowing blade would result in a more efficient and effective motion of the blade through the water that would result in a higher boat speed when an equal input power is provided. A 1:5 scaled rowing boat is used to determine the performance of rowing blades with different sizes and blade angles. This is used to validate the results of a previous study where the optimal blade angle of 15<inline-formula><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="IM1"><mml:msup><mml:mi></mml:mi><mml:mo>∘</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math></inline-formula> with respect to the oar shaft was determined (
<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B1">1</xref>). The input power and speed of the rowing boat can be compared between original and modified oar blades. Measurements in a towing tank demonstrate that a modified rowing blade result in faster rowing by 0.4% at the same input power. Maintaining the same stroke rate, the improvement of the blade efficiency is compensated by using a 4–6% increased blade area to yield the same input power.</p>