My theory of the bifid bow is that it was a way of combining a fine bow entry with a fuller bow above it (for better lift in waves). A skin boat can't otherwise have a hollow form to get both in a relatively low windage bow. Perhaps the first ones made that way were representations of an open mouthed predator but soon practicality reared its ugly head and a stick was placed in the mouth to keep the kelp from getting wedged in there and later the lower jaw was turned up in order to avoid putting in that stick and attaching it somehow in place while keeping the desirable function that had been recognized. The Greenland kayaks get the same function with a lot of rake at the front but at the cost of adding even more windage at the bow either from extra length or height required. The rake on a Greenland kayak also provided the means to slide up onto low ice flows. The flexibility of a skin on frame hull also helps provide this bow lift function so the buoyancy necessary to provide equal dryness does not have to be nearly as much with a flexible a skin boat as on a hard shell kayak of similar dimensions. Dyson's bulbous bow (and whale oil as a laminar flow stabilizer) theories, I think came from him working backwards to try to explain the historical accounts that had Biadarka's traveling good distances at something like 10 knots. Personally, I think the historical accounts were either mis-calculated or the strong currents and/or waves to surf on (or possible portage short-cuts) weren't taken into account by the likely naive observers. The skill and strength of a people that depended on the kayak for many generations (combined with the workings of evolution) also was likely a factor in making the average Eskimo paddler have the endurance and speed of present day top Olympic competitors. Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Aug 17 2007 - 19:16:28 PDT
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