The Maine Guide Paddle

[D J Hayes]

Thanks for that article, Benson, which was somewhat revealing. To me, Alexandra learned her paddle making craft in a niche environment from niche sources, and I find some of her paddle ideas appealing and others not so. A scalloped secondary grip, Yes. Using a Northwood stroke, Yes (occasionally for me). Using heavy ash, No. A round shaft instead of oval, No. Heavy blade, absolutely NO!

Even as one who sometimes uses rare words and word plays in my writings, I find this explanation for her blade tip to be obscure:

"The thinnest part of her blade resides four inches inland of the tip and thereafter the blade gradually thickens toward a subtle finial bulb. This reinforcement reduces checking and produces less torque under water."

I take this to mean that she makes the blade tips fat to help prevent splitting, but have no idea what that has to do with underwater torque. This is an old gimmick when making a paddle from a solid piece of wood, but one that detracts from both balance and sliceability in my experimentation. Bruce Smith in Canada, who made my butternut ottertail but who is now ill and perhaps out of the paddle business after 50 years, also would thicken the blade tip modestly to deter splitting. However, he would perfectly balance every shaft and blade at the throat using different cut thicknesses, blade/shaft ratios, and some wood inlays.

There is no need to resort to this detrimental gimmick on a laminated wood paddle with thin edge guards or, of course, on a carbon blade, all of which can be made much lighter and better balanced than a Conover paddle.



I don't, mainly because I don't know what the term "Maine Guide paddle" means. If it means what @Tsuga8 suggests, I don't want one. While I like secondary grips very much, I will never like any heavy paddle, much less a blade heavy paddle, and I've very rarely stood up to paddle in my entire life.



My second paddle was a 57" Old Town beavertail. I don't know who made it. But it was thin, light enough and well balanced. I loved it but split the tip, the only paddle I've ever damaged in my life. It continued to be my flatwater favorite for years even while enduring some clear tape on the split. Soon thereafter, I ordered from Old Town a 54" and a 60" beavertail because of my appreciation for the 57". Both of them arrived atrociously heavy and with thick, unbalanced blades—inelegant clubs that I have never used in 45 years.



I have no idea what stroke rate Maine guides used, but suspect it depended on the guide and what kind of paddling they were doing.

If you are saying that a long, straight paddle can accelerate faster than a a short paddle, especially a short bent shaft paddle, I disagree.

If you are saying that a beavertail shape is more powerful than the Sugar Island shapes of whitewater paddlers, or the tulip shapes of flatwater and outrigger racers, or the Honey Island shapes of the early sport canoeists, or any cambered, curved or cupped blade of similar area . . . I further disagree.

All of the paddles in the following pictures are more powerful than any of my three beavertails or ottertail.

Here is a 1980s Mitchell curved blade whitewater paddle (used by Jon Lugbill to win several whitewater slalom world championships), and two curved blade 1970s-80s Lutra sport canoeing (later freestyle) paddies made by the Blackburn brothers and by Mitchell:

View attachment 148611

In the next picture, I consider the three straight and symmetrical bladed paddles to the right of the Bruce Smith ottertail to be more powerful than it or any beavertail. They are, from left to right, a Gillespie Free (designed by me), a Patrick Moore Cue (from the late 80s) and a Z Whitewater. And they are all better shallow water paddles than any animal tail paddle.

View attachment 148612

 

[D J Hayes]

Great discussion! My son and grandsons gifted me an S&T Guide paddle two Christmas' back to commemorate our October trip down the Allagash. It is too much paddle for me at 68" in ash and is too special to beat up.

 

[lowangle al]

Glenn, you obviously don't need a long, big bladed paddle for your use, but if you did there are light (for their size) well balanced ones out there.

As far as that 57" OT paddle that you liked but were disappointed with the replacements. Some paddles just have the right feel, I'll never spend money on a paddle sight unseen, unless I can get a weight on it.

Sugar Island and similar shaped paddles do have a lot of power, due to their width. But they don't have the surface area of a 30" long 8.5" beavertail, and can't physically move as much water, especially with a long shaft.

In the situations where I grab my Maine Guide paddle, stroke rate isn't any more of a consideration than it would be for doing white water maneuvers. I use it for twisty streams or when I need more leverage in wind. I haven't used it in much WW but the little I did I was impressed with how easy it was to catch an eddy with it while standing. Also, like I mentioned earlier you can get a more bouyant brace then you can with a shorter paddle with a smaller blade.

Getting to your assertion that you can accelerate better with a short bent shaft, my gut feeling is that you don't have enough leverage to come close.

 

[Tsuga8]

Nice paddle Alex. I have three of the same ones. An ash 72" beavertail with elongated grip from The Bark Canoe Store, a 60" S&W 1897 in Cherry and two of the Old Towns like the one on the right. I wasn't a fan of the grip on the 1897 until I started using it. It looked big and clunky, but it was actually more comfortable than the small pear shaped grips that I thought I preferred. I also never thought of it as being "long", but I guess it is.

I thought it was interesting that Caleb Davis said that the elongated grip is for doing one handed prys, I don't think he mentioned anything about shortening the paddle length. Also, as far as wider blades being more tiring due to resisting the twisting torque, I've never noticed that. It was more about pulling more water per stroke. All paddles are different though and my big wide bladed paddle also has a very wide shaft that may compensate for it.

That's interesting, Al. I won what was supposed to be a Penobscot paddle from S&T in the NFCT auction. The Penobscot is the same blade as the 1897 but with a pear grip instead of the blockier grip (as you know but others may not), and I asked them for an 1897 instead of a Penobscot, which they nicely obliged. When I first got it and gripped the grip, I thought I'd made a big mistake on the grip. But actually, like you, I've come to really appreciate it for both palm rolled and northwoods strokes.

I didn't mention Tremolo or Bruce Smith paddles' secondary grips because the makers both say they're for single-handed pry moves, which I think disqualifies them from being Maine Guide paddles. But, those secondary grips do actually work well for the Northwoods stroke, especially the Tremolo. That said, both makers suggest shorter paddle lengths, which makes it a bit harder to use that secondary grip for the Northwoods stroke, another strike against calling them Maine Guide paddles in my opinion. (But they're great paddles in their own right! )

 

[VA paddler]

Not offering any opinion here, just evidence, neither for nor against. My wife’s great grandfather was the owner operator of Camp Caribou on the western shore of North Bay in Moosehead Lake back in the teens, 20s 30s and 40s - near a place on the map called Ogontz, though for a ‘place’, there ain’t much there. Here are two of his paddles that have wound up in my care. They are both a century old, so I have no idea how well they may or may not work. danged if I’m gonna be the guy that breaks them trying. The bigger one is a full 6 feet tall and has an 8 inch blade that is 30 inches long. The ‘short’ one is 5’7” and has a 7 1/2 inch blade, about 28 inches long. Note the different grips on the shorter one, that are absent on the taller one. Neither are quite as light as a carbon fiber Werner bandit, but they don’t weigh much. No idea what wood they might be made of.