Pete, Rob and everyone else,

In wolfgang Brink's book, "The Aleutian Kayak", he says on page 50 "The correct way to hold an Aleutian paddle is with the ridge on the face of the blade facing back." I have made three variations of this paddle, and flutter goes away when held this way, the blade just locks in place.

Also on Zimmerly's website is a page dedicated to Aleut Paddles. The picture below is from that page. The caption says "Power face view, front of blade". A second picture shows the flat of the blade and says "The back of the paddle". A third picture shows Lew Plummer using the paddle in a race, it appears the the flat face is towards the bow and the ridged face is towards the stern.

So on Zimmerley's site, in Brink's book, and in my experience, it appears to me that the ridge goes towards the stern. But I may be wrong. Ask both Lew Plummer and Wolfgang Brink on the Baidarka Mailing list, it seems to be where most of the self-proclaimed "Aleut Paddle Authorities" hang out.

Mike Hanks

: On Zimmerly's website, mentioned in my original question, the drawing is
: shown in Adobe Acrobat's .pdf format. There is an enlargement tool
: available on the toolbar, and by using it the paddle cross sections can be
: blown up big enough to actually see. Still, the question seems to be
: unresolved. Also, what about the apparent offset of the plane of the blade
: from the plane of the loom? It seems to me that if the tip trailed the
: loom there would be less tendency to flutter. The center of effort would
: thus be ahead of the center of resistance. Also, if the ridge were on the
: power face, there would be a dihedral that would reduce flutter.

: If the paddle were reversed, and the plane of the blade were a continuation
: of the edge of the loom nearest the paddler, it seems as though that would
: be dynamically unstable, with the center of resistance ahead of the center
: of effort. Do your paddles have any such planar offset? Or have you ever
: used one like that? Maybe the Aleuts had a subtlety that has not yet
: appeared in the repro native paddle inventory.