For heavyweight males... (the calculator may take awhile to load)
Nonathlon Handicaps? What is the Nonathon? The Nonathlon is a web app that lets you compete on equal terms with other Concept2 rowers of any age. It was created and is maintained by Paul Harris and Andy Nield out of the goodness of their heart and to "give back to the community". Their website uses data from a previous year's C2 Log Book database to establish the "best" times for each of the standard C2 distances for each weight, age and gender classification. (Here we are only looking at the data for heavyweight men.) Those numbers are then put on the curve, a 2nd order polynomial, to smooth out the data so that a "gold standard" can be derived for each classification. Here's a detailed description of the "scoring" process. In this calculator, I have used the Nonathlon methodology to compare "your" gold standard for each of the standard workouts to "my" gold standard. The difference becomes the handicap for our competition. Extending the process a little further, you can also assign handicaps for non-standard distances/times*. In addition, you can select the desired percent of the gold standard that you want to use.
All this is based on erg data but I believe it can also be used on the water. Given all the variables involved with on the water racing and the complete lack of normalized data, erg data is about all we have to go on. So here it is, take it for what it's worth*. Incidentally, the official USRowing handicaps for 1000 meter racing in an 8+ agree almost exactly with the Nonathlon handicap for that distance.
Besides figuring handicaps, it can be used to set targets for your workouts and to see how you compare to the universe of C2 log users.
* Calculations for non-standard times/distances are throwing some pretty weird numbers. Hang on while I try to figure out what's going on.