: Kelly (who you can really tell knows very little about kayaking in
: general...)

And I don't know much more, but now I'm up to $.04 ...to elaborate further, I was trying to say to leave the loom length alone (your case = 20"), but to increase the length of the blades if you have a wide, tall boat. This will give you a longer paddle and you may still have the shallower angle for entry/exit into the water. I think you still want to feel the beginnings of the paddle blade near your pinkies of each hand so that you can control the angle of the blade in the water. As Ross stated, you can experiment rather cheaply and perhaps use the uncomfortably dimensioned paddle as a spare. Just try it out before going through the effort of fiberglassing it or however you planned to give it a final finish. It's fun making paddles, and there is a lot of good info around here to make different types.