Re: [Paddlewise] Paddle length

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Paul Hayward <pdh_at_mmcl.co.nz> wrote:

>
> My first paddle was 2300mm (96.1") and when I went longer I added 100mm to
> each end - to give 2500 (98.4"). There was nothing magic (or engineered)
> about the 100mm, I just decided to make it 'significantly' longer and then
> trim it back until I found a 'sweet spot.' I've never trimmed it back and
> all my subsequent paddles (lighter ones, stronger ones, hollow ones, splits
> - I've played around some) have remained at that length.
>

Yikes!!! That is one long paddle. But it's interesting that I have an old
book about the arctic and there is one photo taken (I believe) in eastern
Canada with several Inuit kayaks in a line towing a whale and using VERY
long paddles. The photo was taken from a ridge above and to the side of the
paddlers and the paddles are clearly GPs and the length is striking. So
perhaps you have rediscovered something here.

So do I understand that you folks also struggled with flutter issues?

If I had a spare $400 I'd buy one of the graphite GPs or drive to California
and beg Strosaker to let me try one of his graphite blades. I keep going
back to his web page about the construction and to Chuck Holst's pages about
the wooden GPs and trying to figure out where I went wrong (with the
flutter).

I have one more almost perfect cedar 2x4 as a blank for a new paddle. It's
8' long so I could experiment with something longer.

Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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