A cheaper alternative to buying expensive paddles is to reshape or tune cheaper paddles to remove weight and make them more comfortable to use on a sailing dinghy to combine paddling and sailing or just canoe paddling by itself.

This article is by Joost Engelen.

Joost, Viola and their two children enter their Goat Island Skiff in quite serious RAID events in the Netherlands and have even travelled to Scotland for the Caledonia RAID.

Here they are eventing in the Netherlands.

Joost wrote:

In the Netherlands events you are allowed to use a paddle at any time which means a lot of paddle assisted sailing. This allows the boat to carry its speed when the wind drops or is blocked by features on the landscape.

It makes a lot of sense for river cruising too.

How to improve a paddle bought cheap

Every boat needs a paddle. Well, at least ours does and most other small boats too!

It works particularly well because our Goat Island Skiff “GISwerk” is particularly easily driven in light winds. Good paddles mean they will be used more.

Longer distances we row. But for shorter distances we use paddles. Also some of the events we do only allow paddles and not oars. Further paddles are way easier in narrow spaces like locks, going under bridges (there is always a bridge in the Netherlands!), setting of from a jetty, etc.

Here are some of our current paddles – Left to right: Bending Branches Arrow – Yampa tuned paddle – Yampa standard paddle as you buy it – Lahnakoski paddle

A nice paddle makes boating so much nicer

We started out with cheap 125 cm long Lanhakoski paddles that were too short. Handy because they neatly fitted in between the side arms of the bulkheads on the Goat Island Skiff but terrible for decent paddling. The children now use them. Then we bought some cheap paddles (the brand is Yampa). Much longer shafts and way better for paddling the Goat Island Skiff. Until we bought a more expensive paddle (Bending Branches Arrow), which again upped the game.

(Michael Storer has added a section below on sizing paddles for a canoe. However for a BOAT they may have to be longer because of the higher sitting position)

Obviously the grip of the expensive paddle is a bit nicer. The shaft is built of laminated strips and the shaft is oval in shape, all making for more comfortable paddling. The largest differences however are weight and finishing of the blades (clunky versus feathered). The machines making the paddles need some meat and thus are not able to get to the finish of more expensive (partly) handmade paddles.

Improving or tuning a cheap paddle

Comparing the expensive Bending Branches paddle with the cheap Decathlon one, it was clear what I had to do.

Attack the Decathlon paddle with a spokes shave, a block plane and various grits of sand paper.

Tuning a paddle (took about an hour) has in practice shown to be much nicer in use than the original one. The blade is much lighter and easier to swing.

And importantly, the nicely feathered and rounded blade provides for a far better entry in the water and steering qualities.

Left to right: Bending Branches Arrow – Yampa tuned paddle – Yampa standard paddle as you buy it

On some paddles it may (also) be worthwhile to rework the shafts a bit.

Oval is nicer to hold and near the grip the shaft does not need to as wide, so a nice taper would be good. Further the grip may want some attention. This is what I did on the short Lahnakoski paddles.

These are the same paddles – the grip on the right one was modified to make it more ergonomic and also the shaft has been made thinner and oval in shape

Finish the paddles by either a couple of new coats of varnish or oil (or a combination of oiling the grip and varnishing the shaft and blade).

Give your cheap paddle(s) some TLC!

Conclusion: if you use your cheap paddles a lot, it may be worthwhile to give them some TLC and tune up your paddles. Or if they are getting a bit tattered, like the one in the below picture, a good refurbishment so that they are good to go for another couple of years.

Yes, the expensive Bending Branches one is still a bit nicer in use, but the reworked cheap one is not too far off!

Below – Reworked Yampa paddle on the left. I oiled this paddle rather than varnished it.

Standard Yampa paddle on the right. The difference is immediately visible. The left one is really much, much nicer to use: lighter, better balance, better entry in the water (no splashing) and easier to carve through the water when doing fancy strokes or steering.

Sizing a paddle to fit a canoe Sizing a paddle to fit a canoe

This section is lifted from the free plans for a canoe paddle.

As Joost points out above, the length of the paddle might change depending on the height of the boat above the water.

But lets look at the normal requirement for canoe paddles. Then add the extra length to allow for extra height above the water.

Sit with a good posture on a hard chair or bench. Measure the distance from the tip of your nose to the bench in millimetres. This is called your “base measurement”. BM

Add 75mm (3″) to the base measurement if you are short or average height, and 100mm (4″) if you are tall. Now add 486mm (19 1/8) to give the length of timber required for the shaft. My base measurement is 750mm, my paddle’s shaft is 750+75+486=1311mm. The blade will extend about 72mm (2 13/16) past this measurement. Also a good demonstration on how the metric system is much easier all round.

This is the overall length for a paddle. For me 1311+72 = 1383mm

There is a basic width for the single blade paddle blade of around 218mm. It can be decreased by a total of 20mm for children or weaker paddlers. Or increased by a similar amount for very strong paddlers (if the blade is too large it is possible to reduce the width after trying it out).

Download the free plans for the canoe paddle to see blade dimensions.

This way you can find paddles that might suit your size and your boat.