: I went paddling yesterday with a group of plastic boats. One of the guys
: loaned me a boat to paddle. Now, I am not a young man and I don't get to
: paddle very often. But at the the end of the day I was tired but everyone
: was way faster than me. My ego has no problem with that, especially since
: I was beat and not to impressed with the boat I had been loaned.

: But this got me to thinking about my design and what the numbers really mean
: out on the water. I decided to take the Hydro number and graph them from
: the different versions of the design and just see how they compared. One
: of the big things I was curious about was the scaled down 16' version vs.
: my 19' I was planning on building.

: Once I get these into a graph where I can compare it comes back to what does
: it really mean? How much difference is really noticeable? I used the total
: resistance figure to make my graph. Looking at the 3.5 knot speed there
: the worst design has 2.37 lbs resistance verses 2.1 lbs for the best
: design. Seems minor and I would assume not noticeable to the average
: paddler.

: So this brings me to question. At what point do these number really matter to
: the average paddler? Are we looking at .5 lbs or 1 lbs before we could
: really see a difference?

I was out last year with two young guys (mid twentys). They had paddled recreationally but not much. I assumed they would be fine in my fairly fast boats, but after about an hour on the water they were seriously tired. They had been battling to keep pace with me and I had to keep stopping my leisurely paddle stroke to wait for them.

By this time comments were being made about being given slow boats so I decided to watch more closely to see what they were doing that was different to what I was doing.

After a few minutes I realised that they were digging trenches in the ocean in order to maintain my somewhat leisurely pace. There was so much effort and force being put into the stroke that they were creating bubbles, turbulence and vorteces all over the place.

I suggested that in order to speed up they should paddle more slowly, with less effort, leaving their blades in the water for longer and with a little more rotation in the waist. They looked puzzled, but the difference was marked and immediate. once they had the feel for that I suggested that they concentrate on pushing gently with the top hand as well as pulling with the lower hand. They improved even more and I began to wonder if I should be giving away trade secrets to cocky youngsters who would now make me pay.

The conclusion.

A clean grab with a clean release, and a longish stroke inbetween which is powered to keep the water attached to the paddle blade with as little turbulence as possible is and efficient stroke.

Etienne