My feathering paddle wheel pond boat

Thanks, it does work well, for my niche uses (no rudder complications), especially good for shallow 4" range Flats with Sandy Bottoms, where even oars might not work. A consideration for shallow water might be the necessity of having a way for the blades to kick up so that they are not damaged when hitting hidden rocks, logs, Etc which are sometimes difficult to see just below the surface, especially if moving at speed. The ability to kick up can be done using Springs or with hinge pivots similar to what is used in Asian long tails or mud motors. Damaging a prop can easily be remedied if someone is carrying a spare, whereas damaging paddles, or a Paddle Wheel might be more problematic. Another possible issue with shallow water is thick types of algae or water weeds, which is likely more of a problem with propellers compared to paddles or wheels. I can usually minimize those issues with a prop by running in surface piercing mode and periodically lifting the prop completely out into the air so that any clinging vegetation is flung off, (running at higher rpm in the air- forward or reverse).

 

interesting, but I was talking about something like normal oars, with just moving blade part. might post sketch later.