My two cents worth on paddling-speed vs power. The voyageurs, who certainly were not weekend type people, paddled narrow-bladed paddles faster than a stroke per second. And they did it for hours on end, in a loaded canoe half the time, the other half upriver. They were small people(had to leave room for the cargo). Work-related disability may be a modern term but the company could not afford for these people to pull up lame 300 miles into a 2000+ mile journey. I have not studied the physics to the degree that others have and I'm not sure I want to. I just thought this historical note was interesting. Comments? P.S. By the way, these guys would carry 2, sometimes 3, 90 lb. bales of furs over the portage trails. Steve *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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