[Paddlewise] Paddles, work, shape, length

I conducted my own paddle comparison test today. Boat was new to me, a 
Tribalance outrigger kayak that I plan to use for introducing scared 
newby persons (wife?) to paddling, and that I hope a friend with two 
synthetic hip joints will be able to paddle, sitting on the back deck 
with feet/legs inside the cockpit. I may use it for camera work and 
extended gazing with binoculars. I start to feel sea sick very soon in 
my regular tippy feeling Cobra Expedition looking thru' the glasses.

My regular paddle is a Werner graphite San Juan, light, _big_ blade 
touring paddle. The new paddle is a greenland made by the folks at 
Superior Kayak in graphite. It is a work of art, I examined it and 
examined it and I couldn't see a seam in the graphite cloth anywhere, 
I'm really curious how they make them. Anyway it is quite light and 87" 
long with a max width about 3.5 inches. Nice large oval grip, extremely 
comfortable to hold.

I started out with the greenie and combining that with a new boat with 
a rudder (I've never used a rudder before) it must have looked pretty 
uncoordinated and funny. After about 20 minutes I was starting to thing 
the boat and the paddle, both, were a mistake. I didn't seem to be 
making a lot of forward progress and I couldn't seem to make the boat 
go straight. I raised the rudder and switched to the San Juan and did a 
little better for about half an hour, still having trouble going 
straight. The wind started to come up and since it is in opposition to 
the direction for going back to the take out,  I turned around and 
started back, figuring I might have some real trouble with new gear and 
reflexes. Having heard that the greenies were good into the wind I went 
back to it and was astonished to find that suddenly it seemed to be 
working extremely well. When I first started using it, the first time, 
it fluttered viciously for a while until I managed to get the knack of 
the slight tipping of the blade that produced smooth working. This time 
I found that I was making better progress against a 10-15 knot breeze 
than I ever had before, and with less apparent effort. I soon fell into 
a smooth rhythm of quick short paddle strokes with the paddle held very 
low and made what seemed to be effortless progress into the wind.

I found that the greenie seemed to spin it's wheels if I tried to make 
a quick acceleration, i.e. sudden application of lots of force resulted 
in lots of noise and sucking down of air along the shaft and not much 
boat movement. When I stopped trying to do a drag race start and took 
lots of shorter, easier, strokes, the boat soon  accelerated and felt 
as tho' it was coasting along at a pretty good speed.

When I got back to the takeout, I knew my fat old body was going to be 
reluctant to move out of the cockpit, quickly (my regular boat is a 
SOT), so well before I got to the beach I wrestled my butt out of the 
cockpit onto the back deck behind the cockpit and paddled that way. 
That position would be very convenient if you are addicted to fishing. 
When I was almost ready to touch bottom I stood up and poled in to 
contact with the sand and then just stepped out. Couldn't do that in 
surf, or course, but I couldn't do that in any other kayak I've ever 
been in, either.

I think that a little more experience with the greenie will result in 
it "growing on me". I'm going to have to experiment a little more with 
the Tribalance boat and see how successful my goals for it will be. 
It's very cleverly designed, the outriggers assemble to the hull in 
less than 60 seconds, and since they give the boat a 7.5 foot beam it 
goes without saying that it has extreme initial stability. The floats 
have two height settings, on the high setting that I used today, they 
mostly don't touch the water much at all. It seems ideal for smooth 
water and people who fear "damn tippy little boats."

URL's http://www.tribalance.com and http://www.superiorkayaks.com

Fair winds and happy bytes, Dave Flory


-- 
Check out the marine mammals _at_ 
<http://homepage.mac.com/dflory/Menu5.html>
     Speak softly and study Aikido, then you won't need a big stick.

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