Adventure Rowing: The Rowing Innovations of Don Rickert

Intro to Don Rickert Research & Design Rowing Innovations

This is the beginning of what will soon be a quite large portfolio of inventions and designs by Don Rickert related to high-performance rowing craft intended for use in "extreme" conditions and easy transport. Currently shown on this site is a working prototype for an 18-foot inflatable sliding seat sculling boat. Two other rowing craft are in development, as well as special oars for rough river rowing and innovative rowing rigs for ocean and rough river rowing.

Very soon, we will have images of two hybrid hard-shell/fabric extreme condition rowing craft...one is a "break-down" model that disassembles into three manageable sections. Both will have ABS bottoms for rowing over rocks and shoals.

We are also working on special rowing collars to convert super-strong "outfitter" aluminum oars to sculling oars...and we have some really cool rowing rigs in development, designed specifically for safety when capsizing (face it, it is going to happen when launching and beaching in strong ocean tides).

aluminum oars, craft, Don Rickert, extreme conditions, high-performance, ocean, rowing, rowing rigs, sculling

Adventure Rowing(tm) Products in Development for Late Spring '09 Introduction

The late Spring '09 estimated date depends on funding matters (remember that we self-fund our product development generally). The RIGHT investor(s) (venture capitalists looking for majority ownership need not waste their time).

The Products:

The production version of the 18' inflatable pictured on this site

This one's almost ready. It will feature our own padded rigging (necessary for capsize safety) attached to a Piantedosi rowing track and sliding seat system, as the existing Piantedosi complete rigging is a tad too wide for the boat and the rowing geometry is not quite right for our boat. This boat can be rowed as a single or a double scull (two 10' oars per rower). The boat is too short for rowing as a pair (i.e. one 14' sweep oar per rower).

Break-down 10' or 14' "outfitter" oars

The 10-footers are used for sculling and the 14-footers are used for sweep rowing boats set up as pairs (also known as the 2- configuration)

Regular oars are too fragile for the kind of conditions for which our boats may be used, especially fast-moving rivers, especially with shoals and/or hidden rocks. Outfitter oars, usually made of hard aluminum are necessary. These are the oars you will see used on drift boats, where the rower stands forward when rowing. The oars and replaceable blades can actually be used to "pry the boat against a strong current in shoal conditions (rocky shallow water).

The problem is that the dimension of outfitter oars is greater than standard sculling oars. We are working on a special rowing collar system to allow the use of outfitter oars in standard high-performance oar locks. Our oars will come in various break-down configurations for easy transportation to remote locations.

Several kits for home-building rigging systems

We will have several kits for sculling systems (10' oars) or sweep rowing systems (14') oars.

Other Boats

1. An 18' self-bailing boat of hard shell/extreme-duty fabric composite construction. The boat in its travel configuration is only about 4" thick with a 2' beam...like a really long surfboard. We are considering a version that "breaks down" into two (2) sections. This is a highly-protected design at this time.
2. A 24' self-bailing hard-shell/fabric boat that breaks down into 3 stackable 8' sections. The stacked broken-down boat will measure about 4"x2'x8', which is easily carried on car roof racks.

• This boat can be rigged in any of the following configurations.
• Single sculling (rower uses 2 10' oars)
• Double sculling (each rower uses 2 10' oars)

• As a pair (each of two rowers use ONE 14' sweep oar. The rower in the stern controls a steering rudder with foot controls)

This boat is also a highly-protected design at this time.

Other Stuff

We'll tell you about other gear as we invent it. One thing we are toying around with is a wireless controlled motorized pair rudder (with an old fashioned cable-controlled system, of course)

adventure, boat, boats, break-down, composite, fabric, hard shell, inflatible, oar collars, oars, outfitter, Piantedosi, riggers, rigging, rowing, sculling, sweep

Why Boats?

Design Research

IImmersive ethnography was carried , including active involvement on a competitive adult rowing team (Men’s 4+, a racing boat with four rowers and one coxswain) and serving on the Board of a rowing club in order to achieve full access to the rowing culture. Some of the members of Dr. Rickert's rowing club team (Rickert is the lower absolute center of the photo with the white tank top) are shown in the photo, which you can click on to see full size.

Click on any of the thumbnail images below to see larger views of some photos taken in the course of the design research. Note that some of these photos are of poor quality, as they were taken with a camera phone.

Observed Product Opportunity

There are many people interested in open water adventure rowing (away from the rowing club in often rough conditions), but few available resources and great logistical challenges. 

adventure, design research, Don Rickert, open water, rowing

Solution to the Observed Product Opportunity: Open Water Adventure Rowing Gear

Repeat: There are many people interested in open water adventure rowing, but few available resources and great logistical challenges.

Rowing clubs are a great resource to those fortunate enough to live in an area that has a large body of protected (i.e. no waves or appreciable currents). In general rowing clubs are focused on one thing, and that is racing on protected water. The large number of folks who are interested in so-called "open water" sliding-seat sculling (2 oars per person) or rowing (1 oar per person) are not even on the radar screens of most rowing clubs, except perhaps in the Northwest of the U.S., such as the San Francisco Bay area.

If one is a serious open water sculler (sliding seat rowing with two oars on rough water), they are generally limited by the great difficulty of transporting high performance recreational rowing shells, such as the Alden Single or Double Ocean Shells, the Maas 19, Maas 24, etc. Anyone who has tried to transport one of these boats on the top of a car or SUV knows that it is a real pain. Furthermore, the boats are often damaged by the wind. Sometimes, the roof racks themselves are damaged or, worse still, pulled from the vehicle...the results of a 16 - 24 foot boat flying off of a vehicle room at highway speed are NEVER good!

There has been at least one attempt to adapt an inflatable kayak to sculling. The boat is quite expensive and we are not sure how well it performs. Inflatable boats, even really good ones, tend to be far more flexible than is desirable for rowing--rowing craft need to be quite stiff in order to perform well. In terms of basic physics, much energy is lost in the constant bending of the boat as the rower slides from stern to bow on the wheeled seat.

We have found a way to adapt a Piantidosi 'Scout' rig (www.rowingrigs.com/) to a standard inflatable self-bailing ocean kayak, such as a Sevylor 18' ocean boat shown in the pictures. More importantly, we have found a way to stiffen the boat without adding more than 10 lbs or so to the craft. The photos are taken from a sea trial of an early prototype. We have not recorded the performance data in quantitative terms yet; however, all who have rowed it are amazed at its speed and performance in calm or rough water conditions--look carefully at the beautiful wake in the photos. The photos reveal almost no mid-ship flexing, even with a 220 lb rower (Dr. Don).

adventure, Alden Double, Alden Single, Maas 19, Maas 24, Ocean Shells, open water, rowing, sculling

Sea Trial of a New Adventure Rowing Craft (Capable of Class III River Conditions and Open Ocean Rowing)

See larger views of any of the thumbnail images below. The photos were taken at Lake Allatoona in Georgia, close to a dam, thus producing an extremely strong current. Furthermore, winds were such that the "chop" ranged from 6" to 12" to about 2 feet when the jet-skiers came through over and over again...a good day for testing a boat intended for rough conditions.

Note in the photos that there is no visible flex in the boat. A regular inflatable, the one we used included, would make rowing almost impossible...we know because we have tried. The same can be said of most recreational canoes, except for the old-style aluminum ones.

Also note the wake, indicating a nice rate of speed. Our sense is that the converted boat is stiffer and faster than our Alden Ocean shells; however, for such a claim needs further testing. We will show you how it works when the Patents are secured...sorry :-(

boat, inflatible, rough conditions, sea trials