Michael Daly wrote: "Unfortunately, it forces you to make the further assumption that the ventilated blade works the same as an unventilated etc. Given the substantial difference in density between water and air, I'm doubtful." It forces me to make what assumption? The ventilated blade behaves quite differently, as I can both see and feel. Force produced is noticeably lower, and it is noisy, too. Ventilation is to be avoided, I find. GP's are good at avoiding it, if used properly. Some pretty amazing claims for the efficiency of high aspect ratio blades have been made in this forum. I am still trying to fathom why they do work as well as they do. I wonder if perhaps it is more of a control issue than one of efficiency? The force produced on a blade with flow across it chordally probably does not act through the centre of area. A wide blade has more moment arm for this force to act through, and the paddle would be harder to hold, as the shaft tries to twist. I have tried using my "euro" paddle this way, and it sucks, probably for this reason. Same for wide bladed canoe paddles. Rob. *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Sep 08 2004 - 14:52:38 PDT
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