Ian Randall is an educator and artist who has rowed since the age of 10. He won two AAGPS Head of the River’s at Shore School and went on to represent UNSW as a lightweight sculler. Ian was a member of the winning UNSW IV at the 1993 Australian Intervarsity Championships, rowing with future Australian Representative Richard Roach and Olympian James Stewart. For the past 10 years, Ian has competed as a Masters rower for Nepean Rowing Club where he has won State and National Masters Championships. Over this time he rowed as a junior with wooden oars, in high school with carbon fibre shafts and at university with the cleaver blade when it was introduced.
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| 1st University of New South Wales - Bow: Ian Randell, 2: James Stewart, 3: Chris Smith, Str: Richard Roach, Cox/Cch: Teesan Koo |
The RANDALL foil ... discovery
Rowing for many hours in a single on still waters of the Nepean River make for much contemplation and reflection. This led me to think about my equipment, technique, and many underlying assumptions of rowing. It was here I started to ponder my wet oar shaft. Surely, whenever the water touches the shaft it would have an effect on my speed. The blade acts as the pivot and the shaft is the leaver... I played around with seeing how light I can make my catch so that only the blade is in the water. Was it possible to row with only the blade in the water? My oars are well pitched so I was able to get this working “theoretically” but as soon as it was time to do some training, the natural design of the oar took over and down it plunged. Watching rowers from elite to beginners, we all row to some extent by dragging the oar shaft through the water, some up to 50%. I considered how could you mechanically stop the blade from being buried beyond the surface of the water. The blade would need some kind of ‘stopper’ or perhaps a float, but this would interfere with feathering action. I found a set of oars which had been sitting there for years with a “to be repaired” sign on them. With some fibreglass I made the first hydrofoil oar by placing a 90-degree edge to the top of the blade. The effect was immediate and obvious - I had eliminated all water contact with the oar shaft was rowing faster and with a lower heart rate.
randallfoiloar@gmail.com
RANDALLfoil is protected under international intellectual property rights
