I was a day or two away from starting a new Greenland Paddle when the "Greenland Wing Paddle" thread hit the Board. I figured, what the heck!

As with my last GP paddle, I used the Chuck Hoist plan for the basic layout and worked with a clear WR Cedar 2X4. I departed from the plan by leaving the ends about 1" thick. I left one face of the blades completely flat and curved the other face to meet the flat face along the edges. This is a much more radical of curve than normal.

Tested it by moonlight last night. It's only twenty feet from my shop to the water. Intitial reactions:

Too heavy in the ends. Very noisy and wet on the catch and exit. Had a tendency to shoot off to one side or the other when loaded. i.e. it would not track well during the pull. The lift created during sculling and sweeping was ENORMOUS. So much so that my normal move of dragging the downward face back forward across the water following a sweep stroke with normally a very sweet feel was almost impossible, paddle wanted to go DOWN and the drag was huge.

SO..... I ran back to the shop and reshaped one of the blades for comparison. Tapered the tip thickness down to 11/16" (I had kinda figured 1" was going to be too much, but you can always take wood off, but...), put about 3/16" of camber into the previously dead flat face and reshaped the curved face. I left the edges toward the tip fairly sharp except the tip which I rounded completely all directions. Results were much better comparatively. It felt very similar to my other (beloved) GP which is a faithfull rendition of the Hoist plan. Quiet in the catch and exit, steady in the pull. The lift, however, is still ENORMOUS. It is REALLY noticeable. There also a very substantial difference in the feel when you pull with the flat side aft or forward and either side tracks well, negligible flutter. As was suggested on the Board, this variety of options might come in handy when cruising. I must say I noticed no discernable difference in forward speed resulting from the paddle, one way or the other. Only down side so far is the back stroke following a sweep stroke still feels fairly sour.

I didn't roll with the paddle as it was night, I was alone, no skirt, no PFD (dare I say it!). But from the feel, I'd guess between the bouancy of the rather thick blade and the lift of the asymetric section, this thing is going to be a sky hook for rolling/sculling!

Of course, there may be yet to be discovered side effects that are not desirable. All and all though, this stick has promise. More once I finish shaping and use it for a while.

Craig