Well, after MAJOR struggles (which I won't detail), it's here! I had it sent from Australia, which mandated the decision on oars, but also turned out to be an error (would have been better off shipping from the US distributor), but such is life. I had purchased the boat to donate it to the Paddling Association, because the Rowing Association was so so, well, I'll just drop it! At any rate, anyone who wants to can use it, and the next purchase will be a set of C2's from the states so we can compare.
The only other OTW reference that I have rowing is the Swift C102, which are (beach) launched out of Utulei Beach in Pago Harbor. I'm launching out of the Pala Lagoon, near the airport, which is protected water behind the reef.
The trades are up, but mild, so 15-20 knots is still kicking up a nice chop with a 2 km fetch from the reef, pretty tough conditions for a newbie to beach launch from. Actually easier to launch from the harbor with the swell instead of the sharp, shallow chop. Even accounting for the difference in conditions, the Swift seemed a lot more stable. Come summer, the Pala is flat as a lake, and I'll also be able to get through the reef pass into the ocean.
Or, at least, I hadn't dumped out of the Swift the first go, but I managed to on the Wavecutter
Strictly a newbie goof!The Wavecutter, with the stern mounted rigger is MUCH easier to get into from the beach than the bow mount rigger.
Quality seems OK, fittings are from Rowfit (AU) and seem serviceable. I'm going to go out on a limb here (my inexperience), but it also seems much faster than the C102. The 'sugar scoop' stern of most of the coastal boats adds a lot more wetted surface (drag), where although the Wavecutter has a fine stern, the way it's designed, it self-drains quite nicely, and easy to reboard from the water (re: 'managed to dump it'. Quite embarrassing, likely won't be the last time).
In anticipation, and based on input from World Rowing for FISA coastal sculls, I had been on the erg with a drag of 143. Although the dimensions of the Wavecutter is almost FISA coastal legal, the drag seems to be much less than experienced on the erg, so I'll be cutting the drag on my erg sessions down to around 135 and see how that compares.
I've been on the Eddie Fletcher 100k plan, and I'll need to figure how to blend the OTW with the Fletcher plan. I started a blog based on Eddie's request.
I had looked at trestles, prices of which were absolutly rude for what was there, then I remembered that my wife had bought some folding arm chairs on clearance for US$15/each. Removed two screws, the seat back pulled right off, and presto!
If I can think of anything else worthwhile to let the group know, I will.
