Re: [Paddlewise] Taxonomy

John wrote: (I put >> in front of the things I'm suggesting a change to and
put my suggestion on the next line)

>>Domain - Man made floating objects
Domain - Man-made things designed to float one or more humans
>>Kingdom - Powered man-made floating objects
Kingdom - Human powered human floaters (oar powered ships, pedal boats, row
boats, canoes, rafts, inner tubes, and kayaks)
>>Phylum - Boats (Human powered man-made floating objects such as canoes,
rowboats, kayaks)
Phylum - Paddle powered human floaters (Canoes, kayaks, wave-skis, or paddle
rafts)
>>Class -  Portable boats (includes kayaks, canoes, rowboats, etc. that the
occupants can carry)
Class - Human floaters paddled from a sitting position near bottom of the
hull with legs outstretched forward (kayaks)
Sub-Class - Decked with sealable cockpit, Decked without sealable cockpit,
Sit-on-top)
>>Order - Decked boats
Order -  Kayak type or purpose (whitewater play-boat, whitewater slalom,
wildwater, Olympic flat water, surf-ski, wave-ski, sea touring,
recreational, fishing, hunting)
>>Family - Decked boats with sealable cockpits
Family - Hard or soft outer hull material (a flexible skin or a hard shell
kayak)
Sub-Family - Type of hard shell kayak materials (wood, roto-molded plastic,
thermo-formed plastic, or fiber/resin composite)
		Types of skin kayak materials and shaping component (vinyl inflatable,
animal skin-on-frame, skin-on-frame folding)
>>Genus - Chined boats
Genus - Manufacturer of the kayak (Necky, Old Town, Home-built, etc.)(for
native-built kayaks this could be the region such as Aleut (or a major
characteristic such as multi-chined) or Greenland (single-chined) or the
tribe and/or historical time frame of a particular design)
>>Species - Skin boats (this excludes modern commercial replicas and pseudo
replicas)
Species - Model name of kayak (or a kayak type made by an individual native
builder or a particular tribe or from a local area--such as Hooper Bay)
>>Sub-Species - Geographic type - this breaks the kayaks down into distinct
groups with features representative of the geographical region of origin.
Sub-Species - variations among the Specie (rudder or drop-skeg option , High
or Low volume version, cockpit size variations, etc -- often identified with
a multi-letter code such as HV following the Specie name)(for native
kayaks - individual variations on the same theme within a particular Species
category)

 [Note: In my "spreadsheet collection" of kayak types I organized those
kayak types included down in a way that would prevent much overlap and
duplications of manufacturers into different categories (since manufacturers
rarely cross the following boundaries to do both types--and I'd already
excluded all whitewater and specialized racing kayaks from my spreadsheets),
my categories are: Hard shell oil based kayaks (roto-molded, thermoformed,
and composite), Wooden hard shell kayaks and wood kayak kits, Skin kayaks
(with subcategories for folding, non-folding skin-on-frame kayaks, and true
native designs found in museums). The hard shell category is the largest, so
I have it organized further by Hemisphere, Continent and the country of
origin before getting down to the manufacturers and model names]


I am also interested in input regarding a general definition of a kayak
As a starting point I propose;

>>A human powered, portable watercraft, decked over most of its length with
a
cockpit or cockpits that can be sealed around the paddler, usually pointed
at both ends and propelled with a paddle.



How about:
A watercraft that is propelled while sitting on or very near the bottom of
the hull, most commonly using a paddle with a blade on each side.

Note: this definition is broad enough to include sit-on-tops and even the
pedal-powered Hobie Mirage (and maybe even Dyson's six-man monster of "The
Starship and the Canoe" fame), but it might relegate some large Alaskan
"kayaks" such as those from King Island (which I believe are commonly
paddled from a kneeling position with a single bladed paddle) to the status
of a "decked canoe". While that may be the category where they really belong
they have commonly been called kayaks and that may be a particular problem
for you, John since your focus is to be on native kayaks.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com
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