Bob, Not having seen the Viking boat you mentioned I can't make a comparison. According to what I have read and heard from different reliable sources, the kayak migrated eastward from Alaska with the nomadic hunters about 1000 AD and reached Greenland a few hundred years later. The kayaks that came from Alaska at that time are thought to have evolved from some type of decked canoe. East of Greenland, only the Irish were known to have seagoing skin boats. It's not impossible that other ancient cultures with similar needs in similar circumstances could have evolved a craft similar to the Greenland kayak. The true hallmark of a West Greenland Style kayak is it's hard chine, slab sided, low shear construction. I've noticed that more and more manufacturers are coming out with " Greenland style " kayaks, but if they don't have these features (at least full length hard chines) they are not true Greenland design. The decks of Greenland kayaks vary in design, but the hull designs pretty much always exhibit these three features. Richard Malarich *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jan 04 1999 - 22:03:05 PST
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