Re: [Paddlewise] Skinboats of Greenland

Chuck wrote;

>
> Often the Greenland kayak and the baidarka are represented as being the
> perfect culmination of centuries, if not millennia, of evolution. What I
> get from reading this book is that the Greenland kayak (and likely the
> baidarka, as well) was constantly changing to meet changing conditions,
and
> that there never was an ideal kayak, whether traditional or modern. In
> fact, what we consider to be a "traditional" Greenland kayak is partly a
> result of the Greenlanders' access to modern tools and lumber over the
last
> 200 years, one of the results of which was a gradual reduction in the
> number of deck beams and a consequent lightening of the boat.
>

Chuck brings up an interesting point and one that I believe gets overlooked.
In my studies of traditional boats I could find nothing that indicated a
gradual development of form toward a more perfect boat. Beyond general
similarities (single chine, multi-chine, etc.) the boats had few
similarities.

One could argue that their shapes derived from adapting to specific uses but
this constitutes and "argument from ignorance" since we have no way of
knowing if these shapes solved a specific problem through intent or resulted
from good luck. The absence of a written record doesn't allow much more than
speculation.

One of the things that puzzles me throughout much of what I have read and
heard about traditional boats has to do with the insistence that the Inuit
usually had a practical reason (performance related) for any characteristic.
I would suggest something different.  It seems reasonable that the Inuit had
aesthetic values that they expressed in the objects they made.  It would
seem likely that they might have shaped their end profiles etc. with an eye
towards what "looked attractive" just like  boat builders around the world
have done for centuries.

In any case, Peterson's observation that the high bows evolved to assist in
getting up on the ice and then went away to allow for the gun certainly
makes one wonder about the validity of claims that the upturned bows came
about for improved seaworthiness and why the form persists in modern boats.


Cheers,

John Winters
Redwing Designs
Web site address, http://home.ican.net/~735769

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