Monday, December 1, 2014

Canoe Paddle Bridle - Lining Method Pic

One of the methods of lining and tracking a canoe in rapids involves tying a rope in a sort of bridle so that the main pulling force is below the waterline. A good illustration of this canoe can be found in Pierre Pulling's  Principles of Canoeing available online on Hathitrust.org (Fig. 14, Page 109).


Page 109Principles of Canoeing

Ray Goodwin's 2011 publication, Canoeing, has an step by step photo sequence of the tying method on pages 170-171. These pages are available for preview here (*pdf format). I've used this method before (see poling daytrip post here) but find tying and untying a little cumbersome so often leave the towing bridle attached with the rope in the canoe until the next opportunity for lining / tracking arises.

Recently, I stumbled across a scanned digital edition of Field and Stream  (April 1933 Vol. 37 No. 12 ). Page 70 had a tiny article with an illustration with a different method. This one involves a simple slip-knot and a paddle for tension to form an alternate bridle method. Here's the brief clipping...



Since I've never seen this method before, I posted a thread about it over on the CanoeTripping.net forums to get some feedback from more experienced trippers. There are a few responses from folks who give it a thumbs up. Hoping to try this out for myself next season and will report back.



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