Hi Peter O, Chuck Holst & Paddlewisers, Thanks for the long paddle feedback. I find it disturbing that we have in Biddeford and now Newfoundland two nearly identical cases in which a pair of reasonably knowledgeable paddlers have gone out on cold water, in difficult paddling conditions, at night, unable to communicate with outside parties, unable to keep their boats upright, and carry out effective rescues. About 3 decades back, three highly trained paddlers went out somewhere along the south coast of Newfoundland early one morning. Not early enough! How high are the coastal mountains there? I don't remember exactly, but they could be 1-2000 ft. In the morning, the winds roll off the high uplands and fall down onto the ocean at great speed. That happened to us once along the Gaspe peninsular where the sea cliffs are only about 500 ft. You could see the wind puffs hit the water- cats paws! They were strong enough to stop some of us in our tracks. In our rather trivial case, we paddled in to shore and considered our options. It seemed- less wind further out! We paddled a few hundred yards farther out and went on our way. As related to me, one of the South Coast paddlers was initially unable to return to the protection of the cliff-mountain base. A second paddler in the group went out to try to help the first paddler back to shore. The first paddler made it in on his own. The second paddler was driven out to sea. He tied a wooly hat to a line off the stern of his boat to act as a sea anchor. He spent the rest of the day being driven out to sea with a steady succession of great waves crashing over his shoulders. It seems he had excellent bracing skills. The other two paddlers made it to a fishing village and got some local captains to go out in search of their lost paddler. Near dusk, as I recall, they found the third man paddling back to shore after the winds died down. They declined to publish their story on the grounds that they didn't want their wives to know about such matters. Who remembers ANorAK? Who ever heard about the "Quill"? Why did the East Arctic and North Greenland paddlers use long paddles? I say- Natural (environmental) selection worked its magic! Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Chuck Sutherland wrote: >>>>>As related to me, one of the South Coast paddlers was initially unable to return to the protection of the cliff-mountain base. A second paddler in the group went out to try to help the first paddler back to shore. The first paddler made it in on his own. The second paddler was driven out to sea. He tied a wooly hat to a line off the stern of his boat to act as a sea anchor. He spent the rest of the day being driven out to sea with a steady succession of great waves crashing over his shoulders. It seems he had excellent bracing skills. The other two paddlers made it to a fishing village and got some local captains to go out in search of their lost paddler. Near dusk, as I recall, they found the third man paddling back to shore after the winds died down. They declined to publish their story on the grounds that they didn't want their wives to know about such matters. Who remembers ANorAK? Who ever heard about the "Quill"?<<<<<< I remember that story, and even recall who the two paddlers in trouble were. Both were considered expert paddlers at the time. While normally I'd say the skills, natural ability and conditioning of the paddler trumps the differences in equipment being used any day, when things get critical every little bit helps, be it the paddler's abilities or his equipment. As I recall the paddler first in trouble had a kayak that was pretty hard to turn in a high wind (but I don't recall now if it was the extended keel version or not--but I'd bet it was). The expert who had the presence of mind to think of and construct a sea anchor from his watch cap in rough conditions made a big mistake in going out to help his friend because although he may not have known it yet the 19' 10" long kayak, of his own design (with huge deep keels at each end to try to make it track straighter and so long in a misguided attempt to make it faster), had so much windage with so much lever arm given to that windage and so little maneuverability that it was probably the most difficult kayak to turn into a wind that I have ever encountered. On calm water it took me 65 seconds to spin it through 360 degrees. That is by far the slowest spin time I've ever tested (of the 1000 or so kayaks I've tested at this). That expert paddler may have even been on the maiden voyage in his new design and probably had handled such winds in other kayaks so didn't give it a second thought to go out and rescue the guy in trouble (either by blocking the wind so he could turn into it--which I think he may have done to get the first guy pointed towards shore--or by towing the other kayak--which can help both kayaks turn into the wind). It is to that rescuing kayaker's credit he was able to stay upright for many hours until the wind died enough he could finally turn around and paddle back (from somewhere, if I recall correctly, like 5 or 6 miles off shore). I am always frustrated when no mention of the equipment involved in an incident is given. While I'd be slow to blame the kayak, it still may have some relevance to the situation. I figure the more information I have, the better I can analyze the situation. BTW, from the picture with the firewood on the deck, I'm guessing (if he used the same kayak in Newfoundland) the victims kayak in the latest incident was an Aquaterra Scimitar first introduced in 1992 (essentially a plastic version of the Eddyline Raven). Perhaps some Paddlewisers have owned one of these kayaks and could tell us more about them. Yes, I remember ANorAK from the 1980's anyhow. (Association of North Atlantic Kayakers was it?) Chuck was the editor of their journal for some time. I think it was founded by Jim Chute. The Quill paddle (made by a company put together to make it, that I think was a partnership between John Dowd and Mike Neckar, called North(something--star? shore???) Paddles). It would be on my short list for "worst paddle ever". A narrow (Greenland style) wood paddle with the blade nearly coming to a point at the tip. It probably had the worst, most uncontrollable, flutter of any paddle I've ever used. It was so long that in using it I had to stay far enough away from paddlers I was paddling next to that it was hard to communicate with them in a normal voice. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
For history's sake, I believe True North Paddle Company in Vancouver, BC was the manufacturer of The Quill... Joel *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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