>> Ont he Norwegian Canoe Association site there were some very interesting pictures of paddle stablilized skin on frame kayaks. Each paddler carried two full sized paddles. There were a pair of loops in front of the cockpit (one on each side of the boat) and another pair behind the cocpit. These loops looked to be 1' to 2" wide. They appeared to "stand up" above the perimeter deck line and were just inside of the perimeter lines. The paddle was inserted perpendicular to the kayak through one loop until the end of the blade was in the other loop. This left about 3/4 of the paddle out as an outrigger. There were pictures with one kayak stabilized with one paddle, one kayak stabilized with two paddles (one to each side), and two kayaks joined together and stabilized using 3 paddles. I am not sure if there was some method of tightening the loops down on the paddles but I would guess there probably was some way to hold the paddles securely in place. The use of the loops was interesting in that they spread the load out over more of the paddle than just a deckline would. In addition the front loops were high enough that the paddle would stay horizontal even though it had to lay on the slightly curved portion of the front deck. It was interesting that they all carried a full size spare paddle on the front of the kayak. There was one picture that had a caption about the ease of getting to the front mounted spare when you lost a paddle. >> <snip> >> Mark J. Arnold MJAkaker_at_aol.com >> The arrangement isn't clear to me from the photos, but it appears that on some of the kayaks there might be two pairs of leather straps inboard of the gunwale under which the paddles are inserted. The straps are on about the highest part of the foredeck, which is not peaked like the Romany's. I'm not sure this is a traditional Greenland arrangement. I have the impression from reading H.C. Petersen's Skinboats of Greenland that the paddle was simply inserted under a tensioning toggle or two, which would be a good addition to my Romany for using this technique. FWIW, Petersen interviewed several old kayakers, and found that none of them had ever heard of anyone carrying a spare paddle. In the photo of the Norwegian rescuing another kayaker, the bracing paddle (if it is being used for bracing) is inserted under the spare paddle at a right angle to it. I carry a storm paddle on my foredeck as my spare paddle, and sometimes I park my standard paddle under it in much the same way. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jun 05 2000 - 15:15:26 PDT
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