Calvin Coffey won a silver medal in pair at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.  Later, he began building racing shells in upstate NY, where he pioneered composite hulls over timber frames and other innovations. Note the magnesium knee brace!  Ever the engineer, he patented a sculling and rowing simulator in the late 80’s.  The oar handles were attached to cams that applied even pressure throughout the stroke to cords that drove a weighted bicycle wheel with vanes that created resistance.  The oars could be feathered and a spring at the gate end of the handle ‘weighted’ the oars.  Coffey Corporation manufactured both sweep and sculling versions of the original SimulatOar and many of these machines are still being ‘enjoyed’ by their owners 25+ years later and there has been an active, albeit specialized market for the machines.

Cal decided to revisit the SimulatOar to reduce its footprint, make it lightweight, easy to store and most importantly, produce a better rowing simulator.  The new SimulatOAR has folding arms and wheels that allow it to be moved easily and to be stored upright in any room.  The machine can be set on a dynamic  undercarriage (float) that can be folded and stored upright, also.  The float produces rail motion to simulate fore and aft boat movement and coil compression for pitching, yaw and shell balance.

Fluidesign Australia has 2 sculling SimulatOars in current inventory to introduce to the Australian market. We’ll be demonstrating them at the larger regattas such as the Taree Summer Regatta, the NSW Championships and the Australian Championships. We think the machine has potential as a land base sculling technique trainer and as such may find a place in clubs and school programmes.  If you would like to see the machine outside the regattas above, please don’t hesitate to contact us.