We have been enjoying our new Greenland paddle from Shaw and Tenney...I say ours, Skipper loves it and won't let me near it. Found out it works good as an SUP paddle as well. We also have been playing around with paddle design for our Sunfish, wanting a paddle that fits in the cockpit but is not the aluminum/plastic telescope model. We made a short handle paddle and it was okay, but I made it out of live oak so it is heavy. And it needs about a quarter inch planed off of it.
So anyway, we were wondering if a mini version of the Greenland blade would work, something under 3 feet. Traced out the cut lines on a piece of cypress and went to work. Cut the sides with a table saw, then shaped the face of the paddle with a power planer. Final shaping was with Stanley #51 spoke shave and random orbital sander.
Marked to 3 inch width.
Centers for handle.
Centers for blade.
Tip shape.
So what we ended up with looks a little like a cricket bat. I meant to make the hand grip wider like the BLAIR paddle, but got excited and cut too much off.
Sea Trials for the paddle, it did what it was intended to do and I didn't feel that I lost anything with the different blade shape. I paddled through a few tacks in the light wind and simulated getting the boat to and from the shore in light wind conditions. The grip could have been bigger but the paddle is so small and lightweight that it didn't really matter. The Greenland blade shape slipped through the water with ease, so a lot of force was not needed on the grip. The flare from the handle to the blade was in a good spot, a comfortable pivot point out by the gunwale.
Thinking about a 3 footer now that is all blade, so we can paddle the Sunfish kayak style!
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