Peinert sculls are moderately priced boats built with the best materials to have the speed and feel of an elite boat, while being durable and easy to row.
We have always tried to provide 98% of the performance of the best Olympic boats in a cost-effective way. Our racing boats feel like elite boats and offer competitive speed potential, but cost a little less up front, last a long time, and are both tougher to damage and easier to repair. All our boats are great choices for school and club use; the stretchers and rigging are easy to adjust on the water but will not slip or change. Our boats will provide years of trouble free service and have a consistently high resale value.
• Kevlar® - layer construction - All our boats use a layer of Kevlar® in the hull and deck. Slightly lighter than carbon and almost as stiff in tension, the main benefit is toughness. If you hit a bridge or run over a rock, you will damage the boat but will almost certainly be able to row it home.
• I-Beam - All of our boats include an internal honeycomb-core beam that runs lengthwise down the boat, supporting the seat platform and connecting the hull and deck. This shear web adds stiffness to the boat and takes stress off of the skins so that our boats maintain their overall stiffness for many years. We have seen our boats that are nearly as stiff as when new after more than 30,000 miles or rowing.
• Single Skin - Peinert racing boats have un-cored solid hulls and decks of Kevlar® and one or more layers of carbon fiber fabric. These do not provide as much panel stiffness, but they are thicker and more resilient than the outer skins of a cored boat and therefore harder to puncture. Also, they cannot become waterlogged. The Zephyr does need some core to provide panel stiffness; it uses a solid syntactic-foam core that is also completely waterproof.
• Carbon Fiber - We use Intermediate Modulus carbon which is both stiffer and stronger than the commonly used standard modulus fiber.
• Resin - The 26 and 25 use epoxy resin. the Zephyr uses an epoxy-backbone vinyl-ester. Both are tough, high elongation resins that are not as prone to the micro-fractures that eventually lead to a soft boat.
• Paint/Gel Coat - The 26 and 25 use a very hard and flexible siloxane paint. It is hard to gouge or crack, weathers well, and does not stain easily. Our Zephyr uses a thin, light, easy to repair, gel coat.
• Stretcher Adjustment - We use the square toothed strips with T-bolts and wing nuts and none of our riggers are in the way of the shoes and stretcher. This allows easy adjustment on the water in 1/2” increments and the stretchers are easy to keep square in the boat.
• Ergonomics - We have always made an effort to keep the seat close to the water. The resulting low center of gravity of the rower makes the boats much easier to balance with a minimal penalty in terms of the angle of the oar entering the water.
Shoes - Since the seat is low, we must keep the feet as low in the boat as possible so that they are sufficiently far below the seat. We angle the shoes or clogs slightly to keep the heels right down on the keel of the boat and to allow a normal splay of the feet at full compression.
• Rigging - All of our riggers are very solid and will not go out of adjustment. Quick release riggers attach in seconds with two thumb screws. Bolt on riggers are also an option. Our new carboon rigger is extermely light.
We are a low-overhead operation. Everyone in the shop builds boats and are probably doing something quiet such as waxing a mold or rigging a boat while we talk to you on the phone. We do very little marketing and do not travel. We use an in-mold coating. We spray the paint or gel coat into a shiny mold. It comes out looking shiny and ready to use and saves us the steps of sanding, priming, and sanding prior to an out of mold paint. The downside is that we can’t hide any of the flaws. We are making our boats as light as possible, so you may see slight blemishes that would be covered up in a heavier more time intensive and expensive process. The single skin is slightly quicker to make than a honeycomb boat, as well as being tougher.
• True airfoil shape.
• Extremely light - 4 lbs. 4 oz. complete with oarlocks.
• 8 bolt mounting - Clamps securly to boat and will not shift. (Quick release is an option)
• Dreher built rigger - Uses a unique process to produce a hollow rigger with light yet strong high modulus unidirectional carbon walls.
"We are loving it--- the college athletes are rowing it daily, and it is a favorite--- they leave the fancy looking (more expensive brand) singles on the rack and hurry to see who can claim the Peinert first."
We can’t keep the boat on the rack this summer even if we tried; almost all of our coaches fight over the right to use it and when none of them’s in it, a camper is. It is frankly the most popular boat in the house this summer.
"I wanted you to know that we are just loving the new zephyrs! They have been the perfect boat for the water we have in the Bay and for the rowers we have. Adults as well as kids have been using them a lot.
Everyone comes off the water smiling!
I just wanted you to know how happy you have made us! Sometimes one never hears the good stuff!
I'm so glad we bought them!"
"When I was at the sculling camp with you, I rowed the red single scull... I loved that boat. In fact, it was probably one of the nicest single sculls I have ever rowed."