Dragon Boat Team Calculator

The balance score holds at 100 for any spread up to 20 lbs, then falls off in progressively steeper segments — losing 1.5 points per pound from 20 to 35 lbs, then 1.2 points per pound from 35 to 60 lbs. A 40 lb spread falls in that middle segment and lands around 73, reflecting that once your heaviest and lightest paddlers differ by more than about a quarter of the average weight, synchronized stroke timing gets progressively harder to maintain.

The formula uses a fixed rule of thumb — roughly 0.3 inches of additional draft per 100 lbs of total weight (crew plus a standard 550 lb hull) — rather than a true hydrostatic calculation that would need the boat's actual waterline beam and hull shape. It's meant as a rough sense of how loading affects trim, not a substitute for a manufacturer's displacement curve for your specific hull.

The calculator applies an inverse power relationship (weight factor raised to the 0.3 power) on the theory that heavier crews generate more power per stroke and can sustain a slightly slower, more powerful cadence, while lighter crews compensate with a faster stroke rate. It's calibrated to a 170 lb baseline paddler producing 75 strokes per minute, with the rate adjusting modestly around that baseline.

The calculator still computes rows needed by rounding up (a 19-paddler crew needs 10 rows, same as 20), but it flags isOddCrew as true since you can't seat an odd number of paddlers two-per-row without leaving one seat empty or doubling someone up off-center, which would itself introduce a left/right imbalance the balance score doesn't otherwise capture.