[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] Nick: The paddle moves parallel to the direction of motion. The leading edge is towards the back of the boat. If the left blade is in the water on the left side of the boat, it looks like this: \, and moves towards the bottom of the page. It is hard to say which direction the total force is directed, but there is a significant component in the drive direction, also a significant component in the cross-boat direction. This is essentially the same as the canoeist's pitch stroke, which is my favourite stern stroke. There, the cross-boat component is useful, as it reduces the amount of steering that must be done during the J part of the stroke. The J becomes a simple twist and pause, with a slight rudder action, instead of an almighty heave, shovelling water away from the boat. How do you use the paddle to get it to lift? I suspect that traditional oars also work this way. They are put in the water at a slight angle, to "bite", then drawn aft. This will produce a lifting effect that is both down (keeping the oar in the water) and forward. Pete Culler preferred narrow oars to wide. Although, he also liked spoons, that tend to work more in pure drag (according to my hypothesis, at least). The real beauty of the vertical stroke is being able to see the flow over the blade. You can really see what happens, and feel it too. Also, the experts using GP paddles use a very vertical stroke when racing, so it must give the most drive at this angle. Rob. -----Original Message----- From: Nick Schade [mailto:nick_at_guillemot-kayaks.com] Your description is not complete enough to tell if lift is being produced in a useful direction. Does your blade move away from the boat as you stroke, or is it towards the boat? or parallel to the boat? Is your "leading" edge towards the front of the boat, or just the edge that is cutting through the water first, or is it both? One vortex indicates lift maybe produced, but it doesn't say which direction it is producing it. I've used a Greenland paddle and I can make it produce lift in a useful direction, but to do so, I must use a stroke that is different than the standard "Greenland" style stroke. Nick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Sep 07 2004 - 14:57:27 PDT
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