Wilky; There are a couple of main reasons that the paddlefloat/paddle is attached to the back deck and not the front. [BTW you can do a paddlefloat rescue off the front deck but it is a bit trickier.] The first reason is that the front deck tends to be more pinicalled (sp?) than the rear deck and hence will act as a fulcrum to the paddle. This causes a loss of support. The second reason is that it is often necessary to, using your hands, feet etc, to keep the paddle at a right angle to the boat during the rescue to maintain the "outrigger" effect. Re-entering requires that you get onto your back deck and enter the cockpit feet first, hence, if the paddle is on your back deck it is easily maintained in that position. If it is on the front deck it is much harder to keep in place. The huge disadvantage of having the paddle on the back deck is that, once the boat has been emptied and you are ready to get underway, it is necessary to remove the paddle from under the rear bungies etc. It is not uncommon for a tired, cold paddler to fall back over at this point. Having a quick-release system of some sort helps. John Winskill Wilky wrote: >>> My question is : why are paddles with float attached always placed behind the cockpit, why not in front of the cockpit ?>>> *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun May 03 1998 - 09:05:31 PDT
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