Message-Id: <v01510100ad2ae7126ec8@[199.170.68.46]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 15:00:14 -0500
To: baidarka@imagelan.com
From: shaysnet.com!laughing_loon@imagelan.com (Rob Macks)
Subject: Re: Skinny two-hole boats
>OK. Here's a question. Why are two-hole kayaks so wide? They all seem to
>be 28", 29", 30" or more. Why can't a double be 23" or 24" or so? Do they
>need the beam to carry the weight of two people? But a single loaded down
>can have additional weight equal to the weight of a person. Do they need
>more cargo space for two people's gear?
>
>I'm designing a two-hole boat from an amalgamation of different plans and
>methods, mostly from Dyson and Wolfgang Brink's boats. Why not build, say,
>a 23-foot by 23-inch two-hole baidarka? Would this boat work?
>
>Another thought about this hermaphrodite design. How come the aluminum
>frame boats can get by with so few frames and so much of the fabric
>unsupported while the traditional baidarka designs have such closely
>spaced ribs? Could a wood framed boat be built to Dyson's designs with so
>few frames, perhaps made of plywood like model airplanes?
>
>
>Harvey Schwartz harveyas@tiac.net
>Ipswich MA
Harvey,
In David Zimmerly's book "QajaQ" on page 21 he shows the lines for a 20"
7" by 22" wide two hole baidarka.
The reality is that few paddlers will feel comfortable with the stability
of this boat. The hull is quite round bottomed which would make it very
unstable unloaded especailly since the seating puts you at less than full
width positions. The traditional cockpit positions for the two hole
baidarkas are quite far apart in relation to modern tandems. This far apart
arrangement would increase instablity. The question is would they have
always carried stone ballist, or where these dudes so accustomed to the
feel of the ballance, like a unicycler, that it didn't matter to them.
For most recreational paddlers the 28" to 30" widths are overkill. Necky
has a double 22' long and 26" wide that a number of my friends use and
feel very comfortable balance wise.
I plan to make my North Star wood strip baidarka into a tandem in the near
future and will expand it to 22' by 26". I will flatten the hull bottom
slightly to increase stablity. Because the baidarka design has so much
volume carried to the ends it would be more stable at narrower widths than
Greenland styles.
If I where going to go for a tandem baidarka of a 24" or 23" width I would
flatten the hull bottom considerably to ensure stablity a rec paddler could
live with.
As for rib placement, I would think tubing would be significantly
more ridgid than solid wood.
So to try to reduce the number of ribs may give you a baidarka, el
dente'(firm pasta).
You might need two people to carry the boat so the bow and stern don't drag.
But seriously, why would you want to reduce the number of ribs from what a
number of traditional sources would suggest is a prudent number?
Hey what the heck! Go for it Harvey. Let me know how many times you can
roll in a row!
Rob