Paddle length for minimal water dripping

[Fedster9]

Hi All,

I have a 210cm paddle, and I hate the amount of water it drips on me and on the raft.  I was wondering whether a 240 or even 250 length paddle would decrease the amount of water the paddles drip on me, because I would not have to lift them up as much as I paddle.

Does anyone have any experience on the matter?  would a 240/250 length paddle cause too much yawing?

Topic

[Fedster9]

Hi Thanks!  it is very clear, no need for pic — I never thought that feathering the blades would make a difference, but I’ll try it (I have whitewater blades, by sheer coincidence, even if I am strictly a flatwater user).  I might still get a 240 paddle even if feathering my 210 paddle improves it, on the assumption that greater length and feathering are better than either approach by itself.

[Matt (Admin)]

Cool – I’ll be interested to know how it works out. I’m sure lots of other people experience the same thing and I wonder if what works for my paddle works for others. Cheers

[Matt (Admin)]

I use a 240 cm paddle and it does drip a fair amount if I leave the blades unfeathered (blades at the same angle), so I don’t think a longer paddle is necessarily the solution, but it could help. I feather my paddle to 30 or 60 degrees so the top blade is flatter when the low blade is vertical in the water, and then water doesn’t run off the top blade quickly enough for it to drip – it makes a huge difference. It takes a while to get used to a feathered paddle, but it’s well worth it – not only to reduce the drips, but also to minimize wind resistance when paddling into a headwind.

Another factor is the blade shape – a wider whitewater style blade seems to help prevent drips from falling in the packraft because there’s a low spot on the edge of the blade closer to the tip, so drips tend to fall from there instead of running down the shaft as it would with a narrow touring blade or a Greendland style paddle. My go-to paddle doesn’t need drip rings because it has fairly wide blades so water never runs down the shaft.

I’m not sure if I’m explaining this very well – if not, let me know and I’ll draw some pictures.

[Author]

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