| Bootswerft Empacher GmbH | |
| Industry | Boat manufacturer |
| Founded | Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany (1923) |
| Founder | Willy Empacher |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Rowing boats |
| Website | www |
Empacher (company name Bootswerft Empacher GmbH ) is a manufacturer of boats. Today, they produce racing shells for the sport of rowing.
Originally building sailing yachts, Willy Empacher founded his boatyard with Wilhelm Karlisch during 1923 in Königsberg, East Prussia. The boatyard was the largest east of Berlin during the 1930s. They built boats for Germany during the war, but in 1945 the family fled their town and reached Eberbach, Germany in 1947. [1]
Willy started a new business at the Seibert boat-yard in Eberbach repairing and making small boats. In 1952 they started producing racing rowing shells, an enterprise that has become their main business today. The business took off after Jochen Meißner won the silver medal while racing in an Empacher single scull during the 1968 Summer Olympics. They built mainly moulded cedarwood racing shells, but collaborated with BASF to produce the world's first plastic shell in 1956. Empacher built the first plastic to receive a gold medal during the 1972 Munich Olympics. This was also the first race worthy sandwich-build plastic boat. [1] This process includes using a wood frame to create the boat hull and then filling with it with composite material. [2]
Hans Empacher, Willy's eldest son, took over the business in 1970. Hans optimized the company by creating internal competition and promoting plastic boat construction. Upon the death of his brother Rainer in October 2018, Helmut Empacher became the sole owner of the business. [1]
Boats built by Empacher are easily identified by their pale yellow color and black trim. Empacher produce every FISA-recognized racing boat category. The company tries to produce two new boat designs every year. [3]
Empacher, as all other racing shell manufacturers, have replaced wooden boats with carbon fibre and honeycomb sandwich constructions. The nomex honeycomb reinforces the kevlar/carbon fibre inner and outer frames. Empacher uses a vacuum bag technique to bond the outer layers with the honeycomb core. Combining kevlar and epoxy resin creates a tear and impact resistant outer shell. [4] Empacher reinforces the gunwale with an additional carbon layer and carbon foam frames.
Empacher offers a wide range of boat moulds for each category (such as eights and coxless fours) and rigger options. Different molds suit different weight racing categories. A lightweight rowing team would use a different mould than an openweight team. Also depending on the team's needs, classical multi-stay aluminium riggers, carbon two stay riggers of carbon fibre, aluminium wing rigger, and carbon wing riggers are offered. [5] Wing riggers are used for sweep rowing.
Empacher rowing shells are used by a large number of crews rowing in international competitions, including World Championships and the Summer Olympics. Overall, Empacher boats have received 64% of the wins in all race categories during 2013. [6]
In the eights, all crews but the USA (who used a Hudson) used Empacher boats during the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the 2012 London Olympics, Empacher boats won almost all boat categories with ten out of fourteen gold medals. [7]
Other big racing shell manufacturers include companies such as: Hudson, WinTech, Pocock, Janousek, and Filippi.
Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars, one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
Fibre-reinforced plastic is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually glass, carbon, aramid, or basalt. Rarely, other fibres such as paper, wood, boron, or asbestos have been used. The polymer is usually an epoxy, vinyl ester, or polyester thermosetting plastic, though phenol formaldehyde resins are still in use.
In watercraft, a racing shell is an extremely narrow, and often comparatively long, rowing boat specifically designed for racing or exercise. It is equipped with long oars, outriggers to hold the oarlocks away from the boat, and sliding seats. The boat's long length and semicircular cross-section reduce drag to a minimum. This makes the boat both fast and unstable. It must be balanced by the rowers to avoid tipping. Being able to balance – or "set" – the boat while putting maximum effort into the oars is therefore an essential skill of sport rowing.
Vespoli USA is a manufacturer of rowing shells. It was founded by former Georgetown University rower and Olympian Mike Vespoli in 1980.
Sykes Racing is an Australian manufacturer of rowing shells. The boats are widely popular by Australian rowers from schools through to Olympians.
The A-Class Catamaran, often abbreviated to A-Cat, is a development class sailing catamaran for singlehanded racing.
Filippi Boats is an international manufacturer of rowing racing shells based in Italy. The company was founded in 1980 by Lido Filippi.
Janousek Racing Boats Ltd is a British-based manufacturer of rowing boats / racing shells established in 1981 by Bohumil Janoušek, a Czech rower and Olympic double bronze medallist.
A coxless pair, abbreviated as a 2- and also known as a straight pair, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars.
A single scull, abbreviated as a 1x, is a racing shell designed for a single person who propels the boat with two oars, one in each hand.
Spray-Up also known as chop method of creating fiberglass objects by spraying short strands of glass out of a pneumatic gun. This method is used often when one side of the finished product is not seen, or when large quantities of a product must be made cheaply and quickly with moderate strength requirements. Corvette fenders and boat dinghies are commonly manufactured this way.
A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand.
A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated as a 4x, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four people who propel the boat by sculling with two oars, or "sculls", one in each hand.
A coxed four, abbreviated as a 4+, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars and is steered by a coxswain.
A coxless four, abbreviated as a 4- and also called a straight four, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four persons who propel the boat with sweep oars, without a coxswain.
A coxed pair, abbreviated as a 2+, is a racing shell used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat with sweep oars and is steered by a coxswain (cox).
An eight, abbreviated as an 8+, is a racing shell used in competitive rowing (crew). It is designed for eight rowers, who propel the boat with sweep oars, and is steered by a coxswain, or "cox".
An octuple sculling shell, often simply called an oct and abbreviated as an 8x or 8x+, is a racing shell used in the sport of rowing.
The Flying Phantom Elite is a French hydrofoil catamaran sailing dinghy that was designed by Martin Fischer and draws on the work of Alex Udin, Franck Cammas and the Groupama sailing team. It is intended as a one-design racer and was first built in 2015.
The Nacra 20 is a catamaran sailing dinghy that was designed by Gino Morrelli and Pete Melvin as a one-design racer and first built in 1998.
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