Several of the elite rowers at our rowing center use Fluid Design boats. I can see why. They are super light and really glide. They turn on a dime.

So how did I like my hour in a midweight? Nice although it was kind of shaky at the beginning, jumping from a MAAS 27 to a Fluid Design.

The reverse riggers really did not change the feel of the stroke or even affect me mentally. To me, they are just arms out there, holding on to the oars.

There were three issues that I definitely noticed:

1. The foot stretchers were angled outwards at the toes compared to the heels in a noticeable fashion so that I felt kind of like the AFLAC duck during my drive.
2. The boat was extremely narrow and during the first 20 minutes of the workout, I could feel my massive (well in my mind ...) calves digging into the front end of the seat rails. It was only by locking my knees and legs completely together that I my calves fit just barely between the seat rails. For a guy, that can be a little uncomfortable depending on your equipment down below because that may push the potatoes down between your legs. :blink: (Definitely not for me but maybe for those guys who cross their legs which I have never understood how they can do that or how it feels at all comfortable but hey, that's just me).
3. At the release, the boat would noticeably shudder. That really bugged me because my biggest personal pride in rowing is a silent catch and a silent, almost dropless release. Obviously it was user error but still ... no matter what I tried, I couldn't shake the shudder.

Every boat builder will, to some extent, slam other boat design and construction. What I heard about Fluid Design is their relative fragility. In other words, they don't take hard knocks very well. Kind of like thin glass. Just smashes. Compare that to Carl Douglas who said to me with a smile that his boats can take a huge amount of punishment and barely show a ding. Well, if I was rowing in a Carl Douglas shell, you can be assured I wouldn't be putting that claim to the test, not at that price!

So how did the boat sit with my 86.3 kilo frame? According to the coaches, I was down in the water slightly but not so much to make the boat unrowable. Craig L. made the observation that many folks prefer to be in a heavier boat but personally, he likes being slightly overweight in a smaller weight boat since the boat is lighter and will go faster. Of course, with that said, some may jump in and begin claiming greater waterline exposure and drag. Although I did take hydrodyanmics in engineering school, let's just say I didn't get an A.