[Paddlewise] Clarification

Nick wrote;

> Try as I might, asking people who have studied the Greenland style stroke 
> in-depth, I have not seen a description which indicates much "normal" 
> blade travel. There does seem to be some travel in towards the boat, but 
> in this case the leading edge of the paddle is towards the back. The 
> travel in towards the boat seems to be a result of the canting of the 
> blade causing lift towards the boat. Lift may be present, but not so that 
> it produces forward thrust.

This business of the paddle angle still puzzles me too. When I use these 
paddles the lower edge of the paddle (leading edge)  is forward of the upper 
edge (trailing edge) Maybe this is the wrong way but it seems like it can 
produce lift in the proper direction.

> However, the descriptions I have seen do make a point of saying that the 
> last half of the stroke is where most of the power is produced. This 
> suggests to me that if the same "cant" angle is held that the direction of 
> flow over the paddle may reverse and there may be some 
> forward-thrusting-lift as the paddle moves away from the boat again. I 
> have not been able to confirm this.

I have some trouble with the last half of the stroke providing power. You 
will recall some time back we had a discussion about what happened in the 
last half of the stroke. At that time I think you and Bruce Winterbon 
pointed out that the paddle actually got dragged forward due to the speed of 
the boat relative to the slower speed of the paddle prior to exiting the 
water.  Once you explained it it seemed obvious and later testing on my part 
confirmed it so I wonder just how much power gets generated during the late 
stages of the stroke.

Hopefully Harvey can shed light on this. No one that I have met out here 
uses the GP paddle so I don't have anyone to consult with.

Cheers

John Winters 
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