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 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
You run into similar problems when conducting dismounted patrolling operations in the military...the only visible thing are glowing"cat eyes" on the backs of helmets/caps, so from the front... I think that in this situation, where you need all around visiblity like this using a broader wedge might work better. Something like : ^ ^ Direction of Travel ^ XX XX XX XX XX where you can look over each shoulder and see the other people... possibly using the flag idea from the visiblity thread, with a chem lite attached to the top would work better (one color for leaders(s) and another for everyone else, or possibly 2 chemlites attached to the hull on either side of the cockpit, arranged like a plane..one color on left, another on right, to confirm orientation... Obiously the broad wedge is situationally dependent, based on terrain, etc... Just a thought... Aaron "Dickson, Dana A." wrote: > 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 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I think your formation is a good one, but perhaps not strictly necessary. Forming buddy pairs is essential, as is the need for all to be aware of the others via peripheral vision. No pair of paddlers should stray far from what they perceive to be the main body. Visibility would be improved by using light sources in front and back, but this too is not strictly necessary. Since the leaders are necessarily watching compass and chart, they should not be responsible for keeping track of those behind. If the followers feel the leaders are moving too quiclky, they should articulate this early on. Group cohesion is a prime consideration in night paddling, and must be maintained by people communicating with one another. One very useful device, which is guaranteed to keep the group together if used fairly frequently, is to assign each member of the group a number -- then "count off" every five minutes or so. Bob V *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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