Re: [Paddlewise] West Greenland Hull Design

Bob Denton wrote;

Re: comparison between Viking ships and kayaks from Greenland.


>I guess the shape of the bow and stern. The view of the boat in the ad is
>from the waterline or below.


I think you will find that the upswept ends can be found on boats from most
parts of the world. In some cases the upswept ends had aesthetic function
and in some they had sea keeping functions. The feature, nonetheless,
appears to be widespread and could have appeared simultaneously in various
parts of the world.

Keep in mind also that the upswept ends of kayaks made in West and
Southwest appear to be highly localised. In East Greenland the boats had
low ends and flat sheers and the boats built on polar regions had high bows
but low sterns and relatively straight sheers. The conservatism of boat
builders and particularly those who build by eye appears to be universal. A
study of the fishing boats of the Chesapeake Bay, for example, reveals
strong local characteristics even though communication between localities
was common. There exist parallels around the world.

As Richard Malarich suggests, commercial builders have purloined the term
"Greenland kayak" and corrupted it to the point where the public perception
of what constitutes a "Greenland style" kayak has no relationship to the
boats built in Greenland by native people.

To repeat and elaborate on Richard's comments, relative to other types of
Arctic kayaks the boats of Greenland have (in general) a single full length
hard chine, low freeboard, and flat decks and relatively long overhangs
forward. In addition one could add relatively small ranges (relative to
other Arctic regions) of prismatic coefficients, waterplane coefficients,
length/beam ratios, and profile coefficients.

The practice of labelling anything with one or more of these
characteristics as a "Greenland kayak" or "Greenland style" kayak
exemplifies the triumph of advertising over reality.

Cheers,
John Winters
Redwing Designs
Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft
http://home.ican.net/~735769/





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