The boat in which three Imperial alumni rowed to gold in the
September 2000 Olympics is on show at the River & Rowing Museum
exhibition, Henley, together with the prototype monococque four
Virginia Cameron developed by Imperial in the 1970s.
The
Vespoli racing shell which helped the Sydney eight take Gold in the
2000 Olympics |
Coinciding with the launch of the Museum's boat restoration appeal,
Design for Speed, which runs during the regatta season
until September, the exhibition attributes cutting edge design
technology to winning, explaining how boat-builders have
continually sought to enable craft and crews to go faster.
The Sydney eight in which alumni Simon Dennis, Louis Attrill and
Luka Grubor rowed to victory with a 0.8 second lead, included a
streamlined rudder mechanism and a plastic skirt worn by coxswain
Rowley Douglas to minimise wind resistance. Designers also changed
the shape of the hull and tailored steering equipment, oars and
outriggers to minimize resistance from air current and water
flow.
Coach, Martin McElroy, chose a Vespoli racing shell, impressed
by the companys research on hull shapes. Constructed from carbon
fibre, the shape minimises combined effects of wave and surface
drag.
The prototype monococque four Virginia Cameron, won the Visitors
Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 1976. The wooden racing
shell, designed by Imperials Fergus OBrien and Glyn Davies with
Professor Alastair Cameron of the Colleges Lubrication Laboratory
the driving force behind the venture, aimed to produce a stiffer
and lighter boat. The target was to pioneer an advanced boat for
use at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Christopher Dodd, exhibition curator said: The quest for
speed in rowing has always featured great ideas testing the means
to bring them into effect, whether it was tiered ships of ancient
Greece or the seekers of gold medals at the next Olympics in
Athens.
The boats in Design for Speed show how designers have pushed the
boat out to enable rowers to increase their performance by a split
second.
