Fixed seat rowing introduces pitching and heaving motions, especially at the start of the recovery, as well as a surge. How does the magnitude of the thus added resistance compare to the linear motion resistance at the mean speed? Is anyone aware of research into the dynamics and resistance associated with fixed seat rowing? Rudimentary experiments with an 8 oarsmen open water fixed rowing boat showed a longitudinal "surge" of +/- 15% compared to the average rowing speed.
There have been several attempts to measure and model the effects of surge, and other motions in sliding-seat rowing. I don't know of any that have been made with fixed-seat rowing.
Day et al used the unsteady form of Michell's thin-ship theory to estimate wave resistance. The theory was quite successful at low stroke rates, but was very poor for the rates typically used in Olympic class events.
See:
Day A., Campbell I., Clelland D., Doctors L.J., Cichowicz J.,
"Realistic evaluation of hull performance for rowing shells, canoes, and kayaks in unsteady flow",
J Sports Sci. 2011 Jul;29(10):1059-69. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2011.576691.
The theory might be useful for fixed-seat rowing because the stroke rates are typically far lower than with sliding seats.
I released a (free) program named FIRM that allows users to model fixed- and sliding seat rowing. See:
http://www.cyberiad.net/firm/firm.htm
The program accounts for the effects of hull motions on the wave resistance and viscous drag of the hulls for all Olympic classes of rowing (singles to eights).
Another alternative is to use a CFD code. There have been a few attempts to do this with kayaks, canoes and rowing, but I don't know if they have been used with fixed-seat rowing.
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