: The shaft part seems to be the

: Mike

: About paddles I know little or nothing, but about wood........ O.K. little.
: But, going to a stronger wood will probably add unwanted weight as well.
: Why not laminate a sheet of kevlar or carbon into the paddle shaft. When
: flying model aircraft, and observing some of the Pylon racers build up
: their wings they would lay a strip of carbon or kevlar along the spars and
: in the wing joint. The wings of these models in the pylon turns, at full
: throttle, would pull in excess of 10 to 12 G's and hold up. Those wings of
: planes not using the extra material would snap like twigs if they went
: into the turns at full throttle. I've seen then actually explode into
: sawdust. After a season of racing, the laminated spars were even showing
: signs of damage, but, they were still there.

: My point being that that thin layer of extra material doesn't take up much
: space, would barely show, wouldn't weigh much more that a standard epoxy
: glued shaft. ??? With no actual experience I can't say anything definite,
: but, seems to me...............

: I guess I should be thinking about my own paddle(s) now. Shucks!

: Rehd

I have actually thought about this approached especially easy if you have a solid cored greenlande paddle. a bit tougher if you are using a hollow loom though.

should increaase stiffness of a lightweight paddle. all that resin used does add up though.

Pete czerpak
albany, NY