Sykes Racing offer Seven mould designs to choose from. This enables us to cover the full weight range across Men’s and Women’s boats and will allow for customers / coaches preferences for aspects such as stability, length etc.

The two most popular Eights moulds that we produce are:

• The Sykes (and Klaus Filter) designed Mould 27
• The Sykes designed Mould 40

Mould 27

The Jeff Sykes / Klaus Filter design mould no. 27 is a modern development of the highly successful ‘short’ sterned boat used by the DDR crews through the 1970’s and 80’s.  The hull was redesigned to maintain its minimum wetted surface area by reducing the depth in the stern but extending the length, increasing the overall length of the boat to 16.9m. This model was derived after 15 years of studying the original East German 8 to improve what the original lacked either practically or aesthetically, as well as to allow for the increase in height and weight of modern day athletes, which necessitated the increase in length of each rowers "stateroom". The Mould 27G (Girls) size is a slightly smaller version of the 27B (Boys) boat.

A Men’s Heavyweight eight using the same design was also produced with an overall length of 17.9m.  This is exactly the same length as the Vespoli 8 although our design is slightly narrower at the waterline than the Vespoli. This mould provides even greater room in each stateroom for today's taller athletes. 

Mould 1 (no longer available)

The Sykes mould No 1 is noticeable by the semi circular hull shape and camber in the ends.  This boat has a proven record at all levels.  It is theoretically not as stable as more traditional designs as it has a very low wetted surface area. The hull is more sensitive to imperfect technique but quite manageable by competent crews. With light crews it particularly tends to run its bow out a little but it retains a long water line for its speed.

Mould 40

The Mould 40 is the most recent eight design for Sykes Racing.  In a first for Sykes Racing, we utilised outside experts in the design of this shape and a staged process, which helped us ensure that we comprehensively covered all areas of the design brief.

Sykes Mould 40

Crews that row in the Mould 40 will benefit from key performance advantages:

• More consistant oar handle height thanks to the boat's leveling platform and increased boat stability
• Decreased resistance through the water thanks to a reduced wetted surface area and decreased wave making potential
• Protection from water entering the boat in rough counditions due to the higher saxboards
• High clearance rigger design minimising the chance o fcontact with the water.