Wm Watt wrote:
Brian Nystrom wrote:

Why would you want to "rudder on both sides"?
Why not? You use a rudder stroke on whatever side it most convenient at
the time. That's SOP in kayaks.

Then it's no advantage as previously claimed?

What are you talking about? Of course it's beneficial to be able to
rudder on on whatever side is most convenient.

You only need or want to paddle on both sides in white water or some
other extreme conditions where efficiency is questionable, and when
poling is sometimes better.

Why? What's the downside of doing it all the time? I realize that it's
not traditional to do so in a canoes, but other than that, why would you
not want to?

We were trying to establish an advantage of one over the other?
You claimed an advantage for being ablt to "ruudder on both sides".
Now the advantage you claimed for steeing on both sides seems to have
disappeared.

Where in the world did you come up with that? How about answering the
question posed, instead of diverting the discussion?

That's only a problem in a short boat. Once a canoe exceeds about 12 ft
in length a moderate paddle stroke will maintain a steady rate of
speed.

I beg to differ. Every stroke accelerates the boat and every pause
allows it to decelerate. If the boat is heavily laden, the changes may
be quite small, but particularly when paddling a light boat unladen, it
makes a difference over several hours of paddling.

I have to disagree. A canoe has more momentum.
You have a point though when thewind blows.

A typical canoe also has more drag to decelerate it between strokes. I
don't buy the momentum argument.

Gettin timed out .....

Whatever.