From: CHUCK@MULTITECH.COM (Chuck Holst)
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net (baidarka)
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 13:37:36 -0600
Subject: RE: baidarka for good measure
>>
I have read that a standard length for an Inuit paddle is an arm span and a
cubit, or as high as you can reach, and these dimensions should be close to
the same. My arm span and cubit is 91", but I can only reach 82" (to the
tip of my fingers), so I wonder about anthropomorphic dimensioning except as
a rough guide. Seems to me that hydrostatics will fill in the blanks better
than cultural anthropology.
>>
These measurements are from John Heath's articles in Sea Kayaker
several years ago. I noted recently that in his narration of
"Greenlanders at Kodiak," he says that the measurement is to the
base of the hand (rather than to the fingertips), and then adds that
some Greenlanders prefer a longer paddle for cruising. So there is
some allowance for personal preference when using traditional
measurements. I personally prefer the armspan-and-cubit method,
since it excludes leg length.
N.B. In the last of his Little Kayak books, John Brand notes that
many Greenland paddles found in museums are slightly bowed. When he
first surveyed these paddles, in his drawings Brand always corrected
what he assumed was an unintended warping of the paddles. However,
in surveying the one paddle surviving from the British Arctic Air
Route Expeditions of the early Thirties, he noted that Quentin Riley
(I think it was) had drawn an arrow on his bowed paddle to indicate
which side should go forward, indicating that it was bowed when Riley
used it. This made Brand wonder if the paddles weren't intentionally
bowed for better paddling efficiency, as modern bent-shaft canoe
paddles are. However, no one else has raised this question that I know
of, and at present there is no definitive answer to the question.
Chuck Holst