Damper setting for competition

[sydneyje]

This may be a naive question, but when competing and rowing a 2000m event, what damper setting is used? Does everyone have to use the same setting? Thank you.

[johnlvs2run]

You can use any damper setting that you wish.

[ancho]

There's no rule,but I would say most rowers use a drag factor between 115-140.

[Bob S.]

This may be a naive question, but when competing and rowing a 2000m event, what damper setting is used? Does everyone have to use the same setting? Thank you.

Supposedly, you can set the damper at what ever you want, but there was a report several months ago about an erg event in Canada where no adjstment was allowed. Actually, the damper setting is not the final answer. It is necessary to check the drag factor and that can vary a lot even at constant damper settings. The drag factor varies from one erg to another, depending on how clean they are and it is dependent on ambient temperature and the local atmospheric pressure. Ideally each competitor should have the time to keep adjusting the damper and checking the drag factor until it is at the desired value, but it isn't always possible to do that at a meet. If the warmup machines and the racing machines are all in the same room, there would be minimal temperature and pressure variations, so you could check out the damper setting needed for your favorite drag factor on a warmup machine, but if it is old and dirty, it might not be the same as on the ergs used for the competition itself. Generally the big meets, like the IRCs and the satellite regattas, have all new ergs for the competitions.

Bob S.