Re: [Paddlewise] PaddleWise [wing theory]

From: Nick Schade <nick_at_guillemot-kayaks.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 13:48:50 -0400
On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 10:57  AM, Rcgibbert_at_aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 6/10/2003 1:46:34 PM Central Daylight Time,
> michaeldaly_at_rogers.com writes:
>
>
>> .  However, Nick Schade has presented
>> convincing reasons for believing that the lift on a GP doesn't
>> actually contribute to the forward motion as such (this discussion is
>> achived in QajaqUSA's web site) or at least not in the way that wing
>> paddles do.
>>
>
> Then I have a question: When one slices the paddle verically down a few
> inches into the water, absolutley perpendicular to the boat, then 
> flatten the blade
> so that the entire width of the blade is popped upwards, one will get 
> forward
> motion. Is that not lift generating forward motion?
>
> We did that scenario at the recent greenland symposium here on the west
> coast. we sliced the blade down just a few inches, flattened it and 
> popped it back
> up. No rotation, no sweeping, nothing. We did it many times on each 
> side,
> achieving about a knot, maybe more of speed.

I have done that too and I agree that what you are doing uses lift 
almost exclusively. It is kind of an entertaining way to move. However 
it helps demonstrate why I don't think lift is a big constituent in 
most paddle strokes. Your really need to move your paddle fast to go 
only 1 knot using this pure lift stroke. Cruising along at 3 or 4 knots 
requires significantly more power yet most people are quite able to 
make their boat move at those speeds with a much more relaxed cadence. 
It seems obvious to me that if you can go significantly faster with a 
conventional stroke than you can with a pure lift stroke, most of the 
power in the conventional stroke must come from something other than 
lift.

I also just don't see a lot of transverse (side-to-side) or vertical 
(up-or-down) motion in most peoples stroke including the various forms 
of Greenland strokes out there. The Wing paddle stroke does include a 
fair amount of transverse motion, but even with the wing paddle which 
was invented on the theory of incorporating lift, there is some 
question as to whether lift is a significant portion of its power.

Nick Schade

Guillemot Kayaks
824 Thompson St
Glastonbury, CT 06033
USA
Ph/Fx: (860) 659-8847
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/

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Received on Wed Jun 11 2003 - 10:49:05 PDT

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