Re: [Paddlewise] racing with a long paddle

Chuck wrote:

>>>>>>My wife father, Richard J. Vogel, was a paddler. He paddled from New
York
City to Albany, NY three times. I said the other day that I use a 9 ft
paddle routinely and sometimes an 8.5 ft with a slightly larger blade. I am
right handed, but paddle left hand control. My Iliad was 200 cm, had a big
blade, good for rolling and WAS NOT the clunker described by Matt. I use it
still with my white water boat. It seems indestructible.<<<<<<<



Most good paddlers paddle opposite their handedness. A paddling school (Sun
River or somethng like that) in the 1980's (as reported by Canoe magazine at
the time in a short blub) ran an experiment where they started half the class
opposite there handedness and half feathered the same as their handedness.
Those opposites learned quicker, stayed with kayaking longer and once they
learned to roll on one side could then roll on the other. The same handed and
feathered paddlers didn't take as long to learn on the second side but had to
go through the learning progression again to learn to roll on the opposite
side.



It sounds like the same huge blade Iliad to me. Well made, big blade, heavy,
and indestructable. Did your Iliad have a rubber covered shaft too? I think
the later ones may have had a fiberglass shaft covering. I'll bet it is
essentially the same paddle but to me, having become used a lightweight short
little paddle, with much more reasonable sized blades feels the Iliad is
clunky by comparison and Chuck used to using a long awkward heavier paddle all
the time just doesn't notice much of a difference when going back to that
clunky old Iliad.


>>>>>>>>Mr. Vogel used an 8 ft 7 inch paddle, left hand control, 90 degree
offset,
and he was right handed. He paddled a wooden canoe, the Peterborough
Cruiser, that was 16 ft long and 30 inches wide amidships. He sat on a small
box seat, 3-4 inches high, on the floor of the boat, legs out stretched on
the floor of the boat, heals together and knees apart, a power position for
power paddling with a paddle permitting maximum torso rotation power. He was
about 5ft 10 inches tall. We have the boat in our boat shed. On October
15-17, 1921, Mr. Vogel, at age 28, set the record at that time for paddling
up the Hudson river from NY to Albany, 110 miles, in 36 hours, 45 minutes.
If there had been a deck over the boat, except for the cockpit, we would
call it a kayak today. There was no rudder. He carried food, water and
perhaps a blanket with him.
Ain't it just a shame that he had to use such an inefficient paddle! Or
maybe he knew something about how to use it. Please consider this my "REPORT
BACK" on the use of long paddles.<<<<<<<<<



I think your father-in-law's paddle was very appropiate for the boat he was
using. It would have been very awkward for him to use a shorter paddle over a
30" wide canoe from a high seating position in the center of the canoe. He
needed a paddle that long just to easily reach over the gunnels and bury the
blade in the water. That length paddle was necessary using that canoe just
like longer paddles are necessesary for paddling in the stern of a double
kayak (and forcing the bow paddler to use a paddle nearly as long to maintain
a comparable stroke rate). So he probably used the best length he could given
the boat he had because he couldn't reasonably go to any shorter paddle. If
longer is better why not go with an 18 foot long paddle? What limits are there
to making and using a longer paddle if longer is better? How about a 100 foot
long paddle? Can we agree that there is an optimal length for any given
paddler and kayak?
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