hi,

interesting to read about your experiment / experiences. As you started with much assymmetry (way too much) and then slimmed down and reduced it, you have in a way gone the opposite route compared with my paddle project. I suspect you may still have "too much" assymmetry, or at least much more than I do.

I started out with a wide elliptical west greenland design and kept slimming it and making it narrower (and lighter) and the idea of giving it some wing profile only occurred to me very late in the process. So I no longer had much material to remove! Resulting in a fairly mild assymmetry.

From your desription I understand that you have full taper ie. all the blade length. Is this so? How wide is the tip?

This type of paddle probably needs be built in several stages, so that one can feel one's way towards a fit with one's style and boat. That is, carve some wood off, use it for maybe several outings, and see if any new ideas about the shape will appear.

The sourness of the back stroke you report seems to indicate that some further softening of the assymmetry is required - mine exhibits no such behaviour. The fact that you managed to get rid of the nasty behaviour on the forward stroke but still have the enourmous lift intact however indicates that you may well be near optimum, that is, if enourmous lift is desired. Does it also have very strong bite during the forward stroke?

Fun to read about someone "running back to the shop" to modify the design!

: 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