From: BKcirino@aol.com
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 17:37:10 -0500
Message-Id: <950303173426_38437543@aol.com>
To: baidarka@imagelan.com
Subject: Cool Qajaq man !?
Just to stoke the fire, It has accrued to me (wile thinking of the form v
function argument) that kayak designs from the areas were the weather and
water conditions were particularly bad were of a more "conservative" design.
Before I'm used as atlatl practice and thrown to the dog's let me explain.
Far south west Greenland is a place of particularly strong currents and bad
weather. It is also ice free year round, so these people also paddled year
round. There kayaks had much less windage and a deeper V to the hull than
most kayaks in Greenland. It's my understanding that these kayaks and there
paddlers were the most "seaworthy" in Greenland. Comparing these kayaks with
other Greenland kayaks it would appear that boats from other arias are more
"stylized". This a is a generalized observation. The Aleut were people of
exceptional skill. Incredible currents, huge sea's, and crap weather weeded
out those who were less than skilled or bad weather forecasters!. There
kayaks reflect the difficult conditions, beautifully and strongly built,
fast, and are not very stylized. Almost every part of there boats were built
to perform. The bow and stern seem to be of a purely functional design. Tufts
of hair or wishers, carvings, and painting the frame with ocher would not
seem to effect the handling of the boat. What am i trying to say!?,well in
short the less sever the conditions the more stylized the boat. Again this is
a generalized statement. But look at were the boats are the most stylized,
northern Canada and central Greenland. These are arias with some of the
shortest seasons and mildest paddling conditions. It seems that people will
express themselves in there boats if the conditions will let them. Here is a
strange analogy but what the hell. My white water boat is a boat of pure
function, all of It's hull features are there to get you through extreme
conditions in the most efficient way possible. No ww kayak manufacture is
going to sacrifice performance for style, but they will make it in rainbow
swirl colors if you want. Now look at the modern sea kayak market , there are
many kayaks out there that do not handle well yet people buy them because
they look good. This works ok because they don't use it in extreme
conditions. If they did they might want a boat that had less performance
sapping style!....I think this supports the Motor Head profile (maybe Boater
Head is a better term?).
Let the harpoons fly.
Bill Cirino
Eugene, OR.