I have yet to find a conclusive response to the question often asked as to: ”what is the top speed of a rowing shell?”
A few years ago I saw a video post of an 8 men crew pulling up a water skier for some distance.
The average speed of current world best Rowing Times recognized by FISA is 22.5 Km/Hour or about 14 MPH for the Men’s 8+; 5:19:35 over the 2000m course.
There were supposedly burst of over 24KM/Hour on that race. The men’s 8+ is the overall fastest Rowing craft.
Because environmental conditions affect the rowing speed, FISA Rowing governing body recognizes Best Times and not world records.
Below are the current recognized best Rowing Times as posted in Wikipedia.
Men
Boat |
Time |
Crew |
Nation |
Date |
Meet |
Location |
Ref |
M1x
Single sculls |
6:33.35 |
Mahé Drysdale |
New Zealand |
2009 |
Poznań, Poland |
M2-
Coxless pairs |
6:08.50 |
Hamish Bond
Eric Murray |
New Zealand |
2012 |
Summer Olympics |
Eton Dorney, England |
[2] |
M2+
Coxed pairs |
6:42.16 |
Igor Boraska
Tihomir Franković
Milan Razov (coxswain) |
Croatia |
1994 |
Indianapolis, United States |
M2x
Double sculls |
6:03.25 |
Adrien Hardy
Jean-Baptiste Macquet |
France |
2006 |
Poznań, Poland |
M4-
Coxless four |
5:37.86 |
Andrew Triggs-Hodge
Tom James
Pete Reed
Alex Gregory |
Great Britain |
2012 |
Lucerne, Switzerland |
M4+
Coxed four |
5:58.96 |
Matthias Ungemach
Armin Eichholz
Armin Weyrauch
Bahne Rabe
Joerg Dederding (coxswain) |
Germany |
1991 |
Vienna, Austria |
M4x
Quad sculls |
5:33.15 |
Vladislav Ryabcev
Alexey Svirin
Nikita Morgachev
Sergei Fedorovtsev |
Russia |
2012 |
Lucerne,Switzerland |
M8+
Eight |
5:19.35 |
Gabriel Bergen
Douglas Csima
Robert Gibson
Conlin McCabe
Malcolm Howard
Andrew Byrnes
Jeremiah Brown
Will Crothers
Brian Price (coxswain) |
Canada |
2012 |
Lucerne, Switzerland |
LM1x
Lightweight single sculls |
6:46.93 |
Jeremie Azou |
France |
2011 |
Amsterdam, Netherlands |
LM2-
Lightweight coxless pairs |
6:26.21 |
Tony O’Connor
Neville Maxwell |
Ireland |
1994 |
Paris, France |
LM2x
Lightweight double sculls |
6:10.02 |
Mads Rasmussen
Rasmus Quist |
Denmark |
2007 |
Amsterdam, Netherlands |
LM4-
Lightweight coxless four |
5:45.60 |
Thomas Poulsen
Thomas Ebert
Eskild Ebbesen
Victor Feddersen |
Denmark |
1999 |
Lucerne, Switzerland |
LM4x
Lightweight quad sculls |
5:45.18 |
Francesco Esposito
Massimo Lana
Michelangelo Crispi
Massimo Guglielmi |
Italy |
1992 |
Montreal, Canada |
LM8+
Lightweight eight |
5:30.24 |
Klaus Altena
Christian Dahlke
Thomas Melges
Bernhard Stomporowski
Michael Kobor
Uwe Maerz
Michael Buchheit
Kai von Warburg
Olaf Kaska (coxswain) |
Germany |
1992 |
Montreal, Canada |
Indoor Records
- Lwt Men: 75 kg (170 lb) maximum weight
- Lwt Women: 61.5 kg (136 lb) maximum weight [3]
John M. Duarte
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