The SHARK Series hulls have been specifically designed to provide a more comfortable and stable rowing platform while maintaining outstanding performance characteristics. Our second-generation hulls are designed by world-leading naval architect Steve Killing, and builds upon the legacy of our first-generation, Britt Chance-designed hulls.
The hull shapes are optimised to minimise drag at race speed - both viscous and wave making - and to reduce added drag due to motions caused by crew movements.
The fine entry of that bow dramatically reduces the wave drag created by the shell. Low volume at the tip alone would lead a hull to have greater tendency to pitch (bow/stern). To counter the pitching tendency, volume is added as far forward as possible, but doing it in a way that balances the different components of the drag to maximize performance. Volume is added to the hull just at the point where the trade-off of the drag created by the change in profile is outweighed by the benefit of reduced pitching. The very extensive unsteady flow Computational Fluid Dynamics work that was done on the SHARK series helped optimize the trade-offs. The end result is a stable shell that has minimal pitching and fantastic speed potential. It is apparent that in different SHARK series boats this contour is much more or less dramatic. If you consider the comments above, it is easy to understand that each shell is designed based on an optimization process specific to that shell class and model.