Bob wrote; Re: canoe Vs kayak paddle >Hank and I have traded email on this subject before. I understand how >leverage works and, in theory, his argument. In practice, it works like >this for me. When I'm paddling normally, my hands are about 22" apart on >the shaft. On each side, there is about 8" between my hand and the throat >of the blade (depending on how you measure where the blade starts) and >24.5" between my hand and the tip of the blade. Wouldn't I get roughly the >same amount of leverage if I used a canoe paddle that fit these >specifications? > Yes, you would. I think Hank was talking about the overall power in the system. Sit-and-switch paddling seems to work best with bent shaft paddles and a higher seating arrangement. Some one mentioned that sprint kayaks were faster than sprint canoes and this is true over the full course length but canoes are faster in the first 100 metres. Also, the boats are different so it isn't really quite so clear that it is the paddling style that is the whole difference. Nevertheless, it seems that the kayak paddle is more effective. The issue of cadence is important since it is possible to have too high a cadence as well as too low a cadence. This was one area that the Speed Boss revolutionised rowing. It was discovered that greatest speed was achieved not by rowing faster than a specific cadence for each crew. Steve wrote about the Voyageurs. Most deaths and accidents to voyageurs happened on the portages or in rapids. Strangulated hernia was the big killer if I remember correctly. They did use small paddles but they also paddled 16 hours per day. Hard to do that with a large paddle. Hell, hard to stay awake 16 hours a day for me. They stopped every hour for a smoke break. They also a rotten diet and few lived past their thirties. Not sure they were good people to emulate. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
On Wed, Apr 01, 1998 at 07:45:42AM -0500, John Winters wrote: > Some one mentioned that sprint kayaks were faster than sprint canoes and > this is true over the full course length but canoes are faster in the first > 100 metres. I think it was me, but then again I'm having a crazy week, so who knows? This would make sense; the kneeling position allows one to exert considerable power, which in turn should lead to faster acceleration at the start...which is why C-boats would behave as you observe. I'd imagine that once the acceleration is over and the boats are in cruise, the K-boat stroke rate begins to tell. One thing that I can tell you is that in whitewater slalom, C-1's can make certain moves (notably pivot turns through upstream gates in sharp eddies) faster than K-1's but they tend to be slower on ferries. Roughly speaking, C-1 times end up about 10-15% off K-1 times for equivalently skilled paddlers on most courses. ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** 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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