Sea Wind
Let us not forget the Sea Wind is equipped with a rudder which adds maybe 2% drag but takes away all the yaw and necessary correction in the stoke.
It seems logical a single blade would be more efficient in this case as it induces less yaw than the DB especially if the DB is long. Unless the DB is used in an extreme high angle each stroke will be a sweep stroke.
traditional double blades
Chip,
I don’t want to get in the middle of this debate because I have little experience with bent shaft single blades. Just want to point out that Aleut and Greenland paddles also have “floation” that somewhat offsets the weight of the blade out of the water.
Dave
Single verses double
I don’t go for speed and having trouble with the j paddling the single paddle changing sides all the time. I bought a double and prefer that to the single paddle guess its ones preferance.
Back in the 70s, Davey Hearn was
winning decked canoe (c-1) slalom races using a double blade, while everyone else used single blades. So, they changed the rules, and said all c-1 paddlers had to use single blades.
In whitewater slalom today, k-1 times average better than c-1 times over the same courses. The k-1 advantage is less on tighter courses where there is more emphasis on turning. In my opinion, k-1 slalom superiority is only partly due to the narrower hulls of the slalom k-1s, because the c-1 hulls are virtually as effective on heavy water courses. The rest of the k-1 advantage has to be ascribed to the double blades. Of course, with slalom runs lasting only a couple of minutes plus, this is an example of what Eric Nyre said about short versus long events.
In whitewater, as in sea kayaking, the other advantage of using a double blade is having a brace and a stroke on both sides, without crossing over or switching.
Good job posting, everyone, it was interesting reading.
…
my $.01…is that double-blading a canoe is like outfitting one’s car that is a classic with JATO. I think the “object” behind paddling a craft to the person is purely personnal. I enjoy the asthetic “Link with the Past” -thing so much, while just “having a good time”…that my skills with something designed in the past are good enough to keep everyone I know alive and out of harm… *I’ll never tell my SO that…;-)
SteveD
yep
and you said a J150 could haul 450 pounds.
Probably no worse than Mad River
claiming the Explorer can haul 1100 pounds.
You ask: "what are your thoughts? "
Mine are: Every time I see some one paddling a canoe with a kayak paddle, I can only assume that they don’t want to learn or know how much fun it is learning all the proper canoe strokes and controlling it with a single blade.
On the speed thing:
Go to 95 percent of canoe races in this country, and you will find that there is a rule in place that only permits single bladed paddles in canoes. - that should tell you something.
On the races where they do allow the double bladed kayak paddle, they are either in a special “recreation class” or if they are in a all comers race, the single bladed people will always beat them.
Cheers,
jackL
Every time I see a canoer
using a single blade I assume that he/she is stuck in a traditionalist rut and is not willing to “get out of the box” and try a different style.
I assume that they are afraid that they might try a double and actually like it, and their friends might make fun of them, pointing and calling them "teenage bed-wetters (inside joke).
I further assume that people who assume are narrow-minded elitists and clappy as hams with their own style and technique.
Jim ( 8-)>
Ouch !
was thinking of taking a trip to Savage River to see their process and set up, but I’ll make sure to bypass central W.Va.
Wouldn’t want to get too many stones thrown at myself.
Cheers,
JackL
I use a double blade in my canoes
only occasionally, for lakes or wide rivers and windy conditions. A double blade long enough for someone of my height is too long for eddy turns under rhodedendron banks, and, notwithstanding Davey Hearn’s old example, I don’t think I could do any better with a double blade in whitewater than I can with a single blade.
Also a whitewater kayaker…
lots of people make assumptions
All the time when I come in paddling a canoe double blading, people I have never met tell me I should take lessons to learn to paddle with a single blade. Sheesh, the canoe police.
They can’t see the SB stowed in the bow… I just put the DB away and pull out the SB and start some heeling and FreeStyle and they shut up fast.
Sorry Jack, but you
– Last Updated: Nov-10-08 3:19 PM EST –
set yourself up for that one!
As for me, a non-racer, I just like having several options. SBs and DBs use slightly different muscle groups, so I find that taking a rest by switching blades is welcome. I took a DB to the BWCAW last year, but used it maybe 15 minutes. Next time it will be a SB straight and a SB bent. But if I have to keep up with McCrea at Assateague again it will be a DB as he will leave me in the dust otherwise.
"Sometimes you feel like a nut,
Sometimes you don't!"
As for ultimate efficiency, I prefer to rest comfortably in the bow, facing sternward with either Tina Fey, Bonnie Raitt, or Jamie Lee Curtis doing the paddling.
All the while sipping some bourbon on ice. Whilst wearing my Tilley.
Jim
Shouldn’t you be facing the bow?
proper orientation
I think he’s facing the right way - look again at who he said would be paddling from the stern position.
As to the question of DB vs SB, nobody but Jsaults mentioned the different impacts on the paddler, and I think even J understated the case:
“SBs and DBs use slightly different muscle groups, so I find that taking a rest by switching blades is welcome.”
It seems to me they use VERY different muscle groups, or at least that they can if you want them to. I have a bad back and various other minor complaints of pain related to spinal problems, and I find it much more comfortable to use a DB over a SB for a long day of paddling. I attribute it to 2 things, one, that the DB spreads the work more evenly between the two sides of your body, and two, that you can alter the physical motion more widely to achieve the same end (in other words, use many different strokes to achieve forward progress).
Ha! Good one, Clarion.
FE
When one side gets too red Jim cries out
Hut baby!
I’m too lazy to use a double blade
Those things are like doing actual work!
No Brian,
when one side gets too tight I say "glub…glub…glub)
Thanks again for retrieving my glasses!
Jim
Don’t mention it. It takes a village
… to hold a proper yard sale!