To all you doubters …

I have been surprised by the generosity of people willing to post on rowing web forums and the time they give to crafting arguments and responding to the points of others. One such generous contributor is called ‘Platypus’ (Yarra, Australia) who has modeled for us best practice when it comes to ‘posting.’ They have followed up the debate about the efficacy of RANDALLfoils on the popular forum “Rowing Illustrated” with a trial of their own.  Platypus presented a review of the design from a position of actual experience and I thank ‘Platypus’ for taking the time to test the design and to share the findings with the rowing community.

Re: RandallFoil
by platypus – Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:37am
“To all you doubters and hecklers out there that need scientific evidence before you get on-board with a new product: I’ve been using Randall Foils with Braca-Sport oars for the past month and are 100% certain that they offer at least one advantage over oars without them. STABILITY.
I don’t give a rat about time trials, I know when I feel so much more stable at the catch. The foils have completely transformed the stability of the boat for me, particularly when sculling in boat wash or rough water. Some people might say that the foil creates more wind resistance. Sure that might be true, but the stability and confidence that you gain in rough water to me kills any negative wind drag effect. Furthermore, I’ve seen novice scullers being able to sit at the catch with blades squared and buried, for the very first time with Randall Foils. Then when they change back to standard blades they look so nervous and unbalanced and can’t do that. Therefore, from what I’ve experienced and seen, Randall Foils definitely offer more boat stability and go a long way to help novices overcome fear of the water. As for scientific time trials for more boat speed: Don’t know and DON”T CARE. Sculling well has a lot to do with stability and confidence. Randall Foils offer that.

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