Craig,

Sounds like it is shaped very much like my Aleut blades. I'd post a link to a good picture of an Aleut paddle but arctickayaks.com appears to be down right now.

Mike

: 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