Our CRICKet bat sized paddLE = the Crickle. We made it from a full size paddle that had a rotten tip and chunk of blade missing. Cut down the shaft and shaped a Greenland style blade.
Showing posts with label crickle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crickle. Show all posts
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Sunday, February 14, 2021
1981 AMF Sunfish MADISON 11 Feb 21 Float Test
11 Feb 21:
Had a small weather window to drop MADISON in for a Functional Check Float (FCF) and Rigging Check. Skipper let me be the Functional Check Pilot (FCP).
69F, very little wind, most of it coming straight off the beach. MADISON had fun and hit me in the head with her boom about 20 times, knocked my hat off twice. We stayed shallow, never made it out far enough to get the daggerboard fully down, my kind of water.
Light wind coming right off the beach so I used the Crickle to get back to shore.
Monday, July 13, 2020
Crickle Storage
11 Jul 20:
Found a nice spot to store the Crickle on a Sunfish, keeps it out of the cockpit.
Crickle Page.
Found a nice spot to store the Crickle on a Sunfish, keeps it out of the cockpit.
Crickle Page.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Crickle
With no wind I use our Crickle, a cricket bat sized paddle with a Greenland paddle shaped blade. It stows neatly on the deck and is easy to use with one hand. It gets us out of the wind shadow of the trees when the wind is out of the South.
Alcort Sailfish ZSA ZSA 18 Jul 19 Small Boats Magazine Photo Shoot
18 Jul 19:
We wrote an article for Small Boats Magazine about the Alcort Sailfish, it will come out in the August 2019 issue. We needed a few more photos on the water so we took ZSA ZSA out for a morning photo shoot. Here are a few of the shots, we'll post a few more after the article comes out.
CYANE photo bombed the shoot.
Light winds, we did catch a few puffs to make it look like the advertising photos. These conditions are awesome for the Sailfish, fun for new sailors and little sailors. Tie her up to the dock and let the kids climb on and off of her all day.
The dolly makes launch and retrieval easy for this 59 year old :) No one carrying a boat into the water.
Raised the sail with the boat nosed up onto the beach. If we had some wind off the water ew'd spin the boat around and put the bow into the wind.
All it takes is a whisper of wind.
Heading back in with a full head of steam. Wearing ZSA ZSA's WoodenBoat Launchings hat that we just got in the mail, she was featured in the Relaunchings section of the Jul/Aug issue.
We wrote an article for Small Boats Magazine about the Alcort Sailfish, it will come out in the August 2019 issue. We needed a few more photos on the water so we took ZSA ZSA out for a morning photo shoot. Here are a few of the shots, we'll post a few more after the article comes out.
CYANE photo bombed the shoot.
Light winds, we did catch a few puffs to make it look like the advertising photos. These conditions are awesome for the Sailfish, fun for new sailors and little sailors. Tie her up to the dock and let the kids climb on and off of her all day.
The dolly makes launch and retrieval easy for this 59 year old :) No one carrying a boat into the water.
Raised the sail with the boat nosed up onto the beach. If we had some wind off the water ew'd spin the boat around and put the bow into the wind.
All it takes is a whisper of wind.
Heading back in with a full head of steam. Wearing ZSA ZSA's WoodenBoat Launchings hat that we just got in the mail, she was featured in the Relaunchings section of the Jul/Aug issue.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Small Boat Crickle
02 Dec 18:
From the minds that brought you the Padook, a combination Greenland paddle and boat hook, springs the Crickle, a cricket bat shaped paddle for small small boat usage. We credit our friend Chris for recognizing the similarity to a cricket bat. The design impetus for the Crickle was the need to have a paddle on a very small boat, like a Sunfish or Sailfish, where there is limited real estate to stow it when not in use. The small paddle would be used to get out of the wind shadow of a tree line, a few quick strokes to paddle through a tack in a light wind, and for use when the wind dies. It can also be used to fend off boarders.
We had a few paddles laying around, neither one of these floated our boat.
We first tried making a short paddle, short enough to fit in a Sunfish cockpit, with a big, conventional blade. Took it out for Sea Trials and found it still took up too much space, and was not easy to control one handed. It probably would be good for a longer distance when the wind dies, two handed. About that time we received our first Greenland paddle, and while marveling at the blade design we wondered if it would work on a short paddle. We made Crickle Version 1.0 from a white pine 2x4, easy to shape, cheap, available and floats well.
Cut the 2x4 to length, which is a secret.
Marked centerlines for the paddle shape and trimmed the handle down to 1 1/2 inches per side, the dimensional measurement of the "2 inch" side of the 2x4 as it turns out. Used the table saw to cut most of it then cut the handle neck with a jigsaw. The desired blade shape will be a symmetrical ellipse, similar to a symmetrical wing on an airplane.
Marked a round tip with a highly calibrated template and fine precision Sharpie.
Marked centerlines of handle, to be used as guides for the Stanley #51 spokeshave.
Rough shaped the paddle with a Kobalt power planer, smoothed it with the spoke shave and Stanley #5 Jack plane, and finished it off with 120 grit on a DeWalt random orbital sander. Shaved the spoke shaped handle with...you guessed it...the spokeshave. Compare the Crickle blade size to the Greenland blade, we put the handle not quite halfway down so we could put one hand there as a fixed hinge point by our hip and use the top grip hand to work the paddle back and forth with a light grip.
We tried it first on our AMF Sunfish SUGAR 2, it did what we hoped it would do and lived happily on the cockpit floor. Lightweight and easy to get out of the way. It could also be carried by the splashguard. The motion is more of a sweep than a dig, that
Tried it out next on the Alcort Super Sailfish ZSA ZSA, I used it to paddle 250 feet out from the shore to the light ripples on the water, used it on a lazy tack and then paddled back in another 250 feet when I was done. The paddle sat secure next to the handrails but some other means of securing it like a lanyard (we called those dummy cords in the Marines).
The Crickle is just under 3 feet.
Potential design variation is to add a boat hook, which would change the name to Padooklet (trademark claim).
From the minds that brought you the Padook, a combination Greenland paddle and boat hook, springs the Crickle, a cricket bat shaped paddle for small small boat usage. We credit our friend Chris for recognizing the similarity to a cricket bat. The design impetus for the Crickle was the need to have a paddle on a very small boat, like a Sunfish or Sailfish, where there is limited real estate to stow it when not in use. The small paddle would be used to get out of the wind shadow of a tree line, a few quick strokes to paddle through a tack in a light wind, and for use when the wind dies. It can also be used to fend off boarders.
We had a few paddles laying around, neither one of these floated our boat.
We first tried making a short paddle, short enough to fit in a Sunfish cockpit, with a big, conventional blade. Took it out for Sea Trials and found it still took up too much space, and was not easy to control one handed. It probably would be good for a longer distance when the wind dies, two handed. About that time we received our first Greenland paddle, and while marveling at the blade design we wondered if it would work on a short paddle. We made Crickle Version 1.0 from a white pine 2x4, easy to shape, cheap, available and floats well.
Cut the 2x4 to length, which is a secret.
Marked centerlines for the paddle shape and trimmed the handle down to 1 1/2 inches per side, the dimensional measurement of the "2 inch" side of the 2x4 as it turns out. Used the table saw to cut most of it then cut the handle neck with a jigsaw. The desired blade shape will be a symmetrical ellipse, similar to a symmetrical wing on an airplane.
Marked a round tip with a highly calibrated template and fine precision Sharpie.
Marked centerlines of handle, to be used as guides for the Stanley #51 spokeshave.
Rough shaped the paddle with a Kobalt power planer, smoothed it with the spoke shave and Stanley #5 Jack plane, and finished it off with 120 grit on a DeWalt random orbital sander. Shaved the spoke shaped handle with...you guessed it...the spokeshave. Compare the Crickle blade size to the Greenland blade, we put the handle not quite halfway down so we could put one hand there as a fixed hinge point by our hip and use the top grip hand to work the paddle back and forth with a light grip.
We tried it first on our AMF Sunfish SUGAR 2, it did what we hoped it would do and lived happily on the cockpit floor. Lightweight and easy to get out of the way. It could also be carried by the splashguard. The motion is more of a sweep than a dig, that
Tried it out next on the Alcort Super Sailfish ZSA ZSA, I used it to paddle 250 feet out from the shore to the light ripples on the water, used it on a lazy tack and then paddled back in another 250 feet when I was done. The paddle sat secure next to the handrails but some other means of securing it like a lanyard (we called those dummy cords in the Marines).
The Crickle is just under 3 feet.
Potential design variation is to add a boat hook, which would change the name to Padooklet (trademark claim).
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