It’s not every day you get the opportunity to design a boat to compete against rowing’s top athletes racing in the world’s most esteemed boats at the Olympics.
SL Racing’s lead team, Simon and Hamish Lack, knew they had the expertise and beginnings of a design that could give the best of the best a run for their money. So, when Simon approached New Zealand Rowing champion and close friend Emma Twigg about designing a boat to race in her final international campaign, she didn’t think twice. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for many years and haven’t had the opportunity to do. When Simon presented it to me, I jumped at it. From the start, I knew we had a great mould and shape and that with some tweaks and development over time, we could turn the SLR into something exceptional and super competitive”.
“From the start, Simon and Hamish are meticulous in everything they do, so I knew they would bring that mindset into designing this boat for me. I think what we’ve created is something really special.”
–Emma Twigg, Olympic, World and National Champion –
SL Racing first brought naval architect Kevin Dibley on board to review the existing model via hydro statistics, examining the curves of specific areas and assessing the volume distribution for various weights, “It became apparent early in the design review that we could make improvements, and we went through the design cycles until we got the results we wanted.”
With a finite time for design and development and the desire to output something lighter, faster and Olympic-worthy, Kevin had specific areas to target as part of the process. “Once we established the foundations with the current fleet, it was a matter of working through changes and seeing the impact of each design improvement. Drag reduction and directional stability were important factors. Newcomers needed a stable platform to learn the art of rowing, while the Emma Twigg’s of the world need a slippery hull more on the edge.”
“The team at SL Racing did a stellar job on the build and systems, and the result is a very competitive fleet that will turn heads and achieve success in the Regattas on the world stage.”
– Kevin Dibley, Design Director, DYD Ltd –
While the initial design focused on Emma’s single, the long-term project was to have this rolled out across the entire fleet of boats, which proved a significant challenge for naval architect Kevin, “Each boat required different approaches as the power from the crew was spread out over the length of the cockpit, so the volume distribution and coefficients had to be slightly different for each design. It was the same with the independently reviewed rudder and Fin details.
Another opportunity for increasing performance was optimising the laminate design to reduce the vessel’s weight while increasing the stiffness. Composite Design Engineer Yoan Stephant has vast materials technology expertise and joined the team to help advance the new design. After reviewing video footage of rowers and the initial testing of the lightweight SLR Advantage prototype with shell laminate optimised for resistance to water pressure, the middle section was identified as a risk area that required specific attention. Yoan explains that this wasn’t a simple fix: “The mid-section of the boat is vital in converting the power generated between the rower’s legs and the outriggers. To complicate the issue, this boat area is also semi-open, meaning the boat is weakest when the loads are highest. The focus of our design was to find a way to dramatically increase the stiffness of the centre section of the vessel in a way that was practical to implement without adding any weight.”
It was never going to be one round of changes to deliver a fast boat to compete against the world’s best, and with Emma as part of the design team from the start of the process, SL Racing had a direct feedback loop to adjust and refine throughout the SLR Advantage design journey. “I knew we had a lot of development to do, and Simon was open to trying different things, fixing little issues that I had, mainly around how I felt in the boat, in terms of confidence and comfort. We were overly finicky about the finer details of things because we wanted to ensure we were creating a superior product. Whenever we returned to Simon with a change or a different idea of doing something, he relished the challenge without complaint.”
This incredible attention to detail and commitment to delivering an outstanding product resulted in the innovative world-leading design of SLR Advantage that had everyone talking in Paris.
“The SLR Advantage features targeted laminate optimisation right where the rower sits, forming the structural connection from the rower’s feet to the oars. Resulting in increased strength and stiffness, in the midsection of the boat, where the power is developed.”
– Yoan Stephant, Composite Design Engineer, Gurit –
Emma couldn’t have been happier with the end result or prouder to represent SL Racing in Paris 2024, “I’ve been part of the process from the start, and I knew, when I hopped in and out of different boats, how fast the SLR was and how stiff it felt. And for me, having confidence in the equipment you use at the Olympics is really important. I would never have raced something that I didn’t have complete faith in, and I think that all of the testing we did in the lead-up to the games just kept reinforcing that for me.”
