Rowing: Super-skiff takes the big Waddell strain

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Champion rower Rob Waddell is so powerful his single-sculls boat had to be specially engineered to take the strain.

Bob Rout, who made the skiff that took Waddell to gold at the Sydney Olympics, was back at his Cambridge business yesterday celebrating the success.

Kiwi International Rowing Skiffs, a 20-year-old company, has grown steadily and now employs 12 people.

Mr Rout said Waddell was so strong that the cockpits of his boats had to be stronger than those used for a coxed-fours skiff - which has to carry the weight and force of five people.

The footrest and rigger that holds the oars also had to be more rugged.

"We are talking about a superhuman athlete here," said Mr Rout.

Waddell had a big input into the design of the winning boat, which cost about $27,000 to develop and build.

A standard single-sculls craft - worth about $7000 - would normally take 80-100 hours to build, but Waddell's boat took around 200 hours.

Each morning at the Olympic course Mr Rout and Waddell's coach, Dick Tonks, would polish and check the boat after the sculler's early morning workout on the water.

The day before the semifinal Mr Rout had to fix a squeak coming from the footrest, or stretch.

The solution was to weld it together and lock it in place using stainless steel bolts.

That gave Waddell great confidence in his machine, Mr Rout said.

The result was that just 50m out from the start Waddell had already pulled half a boat length ahead of most of his rivals.

Mr Rout had other handiwork at the Olympic course.

His firm made the boats used by the New Zealand and Australian men's coxless fours and the Australian lightweight men's fours team.

The Australian coxless fours won bronze and the lightweight fours won silver.

He said he had to be careful about his loyalties while working at the Penrith rowing venue.

"You certainly have to be tactful.

"My heart was with the New Zealanders because I'm a Kiwi, but I was very pleased with the result for the company gained with the Australians."

There are few design restrictions on skiffs for Olympic competition - just a minimum weight of 14kg.

At 15.8kg, Waddell's craft was probably the heaviest in the competition, Mr Rout said.

Waddell had proven, however, that a heavier boat was not necessarily slower.

Mr Rout said Waddell had four boats in Sydney, all made by the firm, and he tested each one against the clock before choosing the one he helped to design.

"Rob has proved that New Zealand boats can be used by New Zealand crews and win at the highest level, which is just a huge breakthrough for the rowing skiff building industry."

The company already exports racing and training boats to Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia.

But Mr Rout is wary of expanding too quickly and is not interested in the mass market.

"I have seen so many boatbuilders take that quantum leap and struggle."

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