Hi Kayleigh, my team has demoed a couple types of boat makers this fall and I was wondering which boats you think are the best?

I’m not an expert on boats by any means but the ones I think are best are the ones that…

…have the most comfortable coxswain’s seat, meaning that I can comfortably fit in them (length and width-wise, because if I can’t fit no one can…) and am not sitting at weird heights or angles. I’m extremely picky about this because it’s where I spend all my time so the way rowers are with oar handles and stuff like that is how I am with coxswain seats … times ten. I could get super detailed about what I look for in that whole area but the bottom line is that you should take into consideration what the coxswain thinks because if he/she is physically uncomfortable, has a hard time seeing the cox box from wherever its positioned, etc. then that’s probably not a shell you wanna go with. You know the saying “happy wife, happy life”? Same thing goes for coxswains and practices/races. Happy coxswain –> smooth practice. Unhappy coxswain with a really sore back because the coxswain seat is really low in the boat and angles backwards to the stern (not naming names or anything but it rhymes with Shmesolute), amongst other things –> shitty practice.

…have the smoothest/least annoying steering because there are few things worse than a shell that doesn’t respond to anything other than “no pressure starboards” to go around a simple gradual turn that I should be able to do with minimal taps on the rudder.

…don’t make me feel like I’m sitting in a bathtub or a canoe fashioned from a hollowed out tree trunk. If I feel like I’m in a fiberglass version of something that Lewis and Clark would have traveled down the river in then there’s a good chance that the rowers are gonna say something about not liking the shell (usually because of how excessively heavy it feels, outside of general rigging adjustments) before I get a chance to.

So far the only two that I’ve really liked are Vespoli and Hudson (despite being notoriously tricky to set up). I’m not a fan of Pococks at all. We had them at Syracuse and they were the worst. Resolutes are OK – half of the ones I’ve been in had poor steering and were absolute bathtubs but the others weren’t so bad so I’m pretty neutral on them.

At the end of the day you’ve gotta look at the needs of your program, take into account the opinions of the people who will actually be using the equipment (this season and in the future), and make a decision from there. Definitely ask around to other programs and find out what their likes/dislikes are with the brands you’ve narrowed it down to but keep in mind that boats in general are a rather tempestuous topic of conversation. Some coaches have very strong, nitpicky, and occasionally downright snobby opinions on why one brand is better than the other and others don’t really care and just want whichever one is the right price. I’d consider myself to be part of the latter camp. I have strong opinions on the shells from the perspective of a coxswain but outside of that, I really couldn’t care less what boat I use. I’m not gonna sit around and debate the effectiveness of one type of rigger over another or how the fluid dynamics of a certain shell is going to effect our chances at IRAs in the spring (both of those are actual conversations I’ve witnessed). If the coxswain likes it, the rowers like it, and the price is reasonable … what’s the point in overthinking everything else?

One piece of advice that I’ll give you though with regards to price and product is to think long term, not just in the immediate future. That was an issue that my high school team had when I was a junior and they’re sort of paying the price for it right now. Our coaches wanted to upgrade our varsity boats to ones that would last the team for a good number of years but the executive board decided to put the money towards a cheaper shell that the coaches weren’t totally on board with because they didn’t think they would get more than 8-10 years out of it, if even. Well, here we are 10 years later and it’s well beyond being on its last leg. If you aren’t a super wealthy program that can afford to get new boats every couple of years then this is something to consider. It’s worth spending the money on a shell that’s going to last you a long time if you need it to (with the proper maintenance and care, obviously) rather than one that you’re only going to get a couple years out of before you have to do this all over again.