[Paddlewise] Paddling Formations

Last Saturday night I led a group of 10 ISK members on a night navigation
paddle.  To help keep track of where boats were we first paired off and then
arranged ourselves in a version of a diamond formation.

   X X
XX      XX
   XX
    X

The leads were a pair, I had the illuminated compass my co leader had the
young eyes that could read our chart notations in dim light.  This formation
worked OK, all paddlers returned safe and sound, if a little tired.  However
one of the problems with the formation was that it was very hard for the
lead boats to keep track of where the followers were following.  We had some
trouble with the slower paddlers being left behind.  Another problem we
noted was that the lightsticks we were using for orientation/identification
purposes were not visible from the front.  

The questions I have for discussion are:

1)  What other formations have you tried with a group this size?

2)  What advantages do you see to other formations?

3)  Other thoughts on keeping a group together when night paddling?

Dana
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