Spare paddle carry method

Tips & Technique
1

Does anyone have suggestions on how best to carry a spare (4 piece) paddle in my Alpacka Gnarwhal?

  • I worry that lashing it to the pontoon creates an entrapment hazard.
  • There is not much room in the boat and I worry that the tube ends could be a puncture hazard.
    -Times when someone in my group has lost a paddle (usually just temporarily with the lost paddle recovered by someone downstream) getting it from the cargo fly would be a major hassle with no good place to pull off the river. Fortunately, those times have all been with IK’s who have more space for the spare.
    Any suggestions?
2

Definitely carried inside. My preference is to wrap the paddle in some very light foam, and use some small straps to attach to the buckles that are used to clip in your twinkies, so that the paddle sits horizontally in the large flat area behind the seat band, but won’t spin or twist and press on the tubes of the boat. Not sure there is an elegant way to carry it on your boat, unless you used a deck bag.

3

I haven’t tried these, but it is a lightweight and compact extra paddle. I don’t know if it would qualify for rivers like the Grand Canyon as a spare paddle. Also in a decked boat it could be really sketchy but being able to pull your skirt with them on. But worth throwing it out there:

4

If you’re really worried, maybe carry them half assembled, and attached directly to the boat, half on each side on the rear towards the top of the tube, strapped through an alpacka strap plate directly with some very short voile straps. I think the entrapment hazzard would be minimized and they would be easier to get to.

You could also make a bow or stern bag (mesh, doesn’t have to be waterproof) that could hold the paddle broken down into 4 pieces) that also attaches to strap plates on front or rear. You can buy strap plates directly from alpacka.

5

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the hand paddle idea as a way to get to a good spot to pull out the full spare from the cargo fly. Hand paddles made for swimming are available for $10 to $20. While they are smaller than the ones made for boating they might be lighter and good enough.