Re: [Paddlewise] Baidarka thoughts

From: Doug Lloyd <douglloyd_at_shaw.ca>
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:20:39 -0700
Harvey said (snip):
> The 'open-mouth' baidarkas apparently had thin strips
> of baleen placed to prevent things from getting caught
> in the mouth.  Other baidarkas have an upturned lower
> portion, thus having an integral mouthgaurd as it
> were.

Thanks Harvey; should have been obvious to me without asking, the answer 
being native ingenuity based on materials available.

>Some of the
> early reported speeds of baidarkas would be well
> beyond most people's power out-put-- such speeds may
> have been exaggerated. . . or not.

I wasn't too sure about the claims of a planing hull for some of the 
original Baidarkas. I kinda figured what paddlers and historians were 
referring to was that the Baidarka hull probably displaced significantly 
less water than other native craft. I have heard they are very fast, 
including most of the modern do-it-yourself, built from strip plans 
baidarkas. Though some blogs suggest the SW Greenland configurations area 
bit more of a fun kayak to paddle - that being subjective of course.

John Winters said (snip):

> Has anyone documented that these boats could plane? I have Dyson's video 
> and
> it is clear that the boat in question did not plane even when paddled by 
> an
> Olympic paddler

I think Dyson's video is where I first heard the "planing" hull mentioned. 
Scientific American Frontiers: Rebuilding the Legendary Baidarka has it 
on-line _at_:

>http://www.pbs.org/saf/previous/watchonline203.htm<

There does seem to be some recognized ability for the surfing attributes of 
the traditional Baidarkas, though I'm not sure how well they do in an actual 
steep, following sea, running downwind. Even though there is a reserve 
buoyancy lift in the bifrucated bow, I wonder how much of a problem this 
might be. The fishform must help. I hate loosing speed on good downwind runs 
due to submerging and loss of momentum.

My original post was in the context of thinking about making a kayak for 
fast running, though I'll never have the bone length/strength of the ancient 
Aleutians.

Doug Lloyd


-----  
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Sun Mar 11 2007 - 15:21:41 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:23 PDT