Re: Drip Ring Location

Posted by Stephen P on Jul 14, 2004

Paddle length seems to get shorter as the beam gets narrower and the stroke gets more verticle. This also plays into drip ring placement...

As a rule of thumb, you don't want any more of the shaft in the water than is necessary to get the blade fully wetted. You definitely don't want the drip ring in the water causing drag and defeating its own reason d'etre.

On my 20.5" beam pax18 I use a 215 cm paddle with 19.5" long wing blades. The drip rings are about 5-6" from where the blade and shaft meet. This allows my hands to sit an inch inside the drip rings during normal forward paddling and the ability to shift to the far side of the left hand ring when executing a sweep stroke for rounding a bouy in a race (as the ringless poster suggests).

Not that two 0.5oz rings make much of a weight difference to a paddle, but theoretically their placement closer to the pivot point of the paddle would be desired (and if you drop a few $$ on an ultralight blade, 1oz is a big deal). Also, if you have a one piece paddle, drip rings are difficult to remove or add.

Longer paddles are preferred for wider boats with a more relaxed GP style of sweeping sroke. But the GP has the advantage that the cadence is typically higher which doesn't allow drips to be as big an issue.

Stephen

In Response to: Re: Drip Ring Location by Mac on Jul 14, 2004

Replies: