Message-Id: <199607252156.RAA00383@bort.mv.net>
From: Wolfgang Brinck <hksystems.com!brinck@imagelan.com>
Subject: Re: Opinions on Replicas
To: baidarka@imagelan.com
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 96 16:52:02 CDT
In-Reply-To: <199607251602.AA027680575@hpbs1686.boi.hp.com>; from "Bill Blohm" at Jul 25, 96 10:02 am
>
> Wolfgang provides some interesting viewpoints on things that replica
> builders don't take into account. Thinking about what he said, and
> what I'd like to do, I came up with some questions that there may be
> no real answers to. However, if anyone has any thoughts on them, I'd
> be interested in hearing them.
>
> WRT the boat sits over time and the rocker changes: True, it's an
> observable fact of life that as a boat ages, it either sags or hogs,
> depending on how it's built, stored and maintained. That being the
> case, when one takes lines off a boat, what is one doing? It appears
> that only right after the boat is built (and maybe not even then, look
> at Wolfgang's boats ;-) is the only time when there is a chance to get
> the true lines. So what about all these lines we have out there, taken
> by knowledeable people trying to preserve the history and knowledge of
> the various boats of years past? I.e. Gardner, Christainsen(sp?),
> Chappelle(sp?), et al. I doubt any lines they took off allowed for the
> settling of the boat. Maybe this is just more critical with smaller
> boats like baidarkas.
>
> The reason I'm curious about this is that the museum here allowed the
> local news to film a small interview in the storehouse. They won't say
> and wouldn't let the newspeople know where the storehouse was, to avoid
> the possibility of vandalism. Yet, in that brief interview, as they were
> walking, I would swear I saw a baidarka. Perhaps someone brought one
> back from Alaska, perhaps it was just a similar looking boat from the
> Columbia River area. Eventually, I'd like to get some pictures of that
> boat, maybe try to take lines off it. Due to the discussion on this
> list, I'm now aware that my lines may not be worth anything, accuracy
> wise. So, I wonder if I should even attempt to take off the lines, if I
> should just content myself with a thorough photographic record.
>
> Bill B.
>
See the article in Contributions to kayak studies by Heath and Arima on
taking lines off a baidarka that was badly distorted from poor storage
in a shed at the University of Washington. Perhaps it is even the one
you are talking about. The article offers some discussion on how to guess
at the original shape of a boat when it is badly distorted.
If you have access to John Brand's Little Kayak books, these also offer
advice on taking lines off boats. Brand always presents actual measurements
of the originals along with faired reconstruction as does Zimmerly. If
you record your actual measurements, then someone else can perhaps do
a better interpretation of them down the road.
Taking lines off boats is always worthwhile as is the taking of photographs.
Lines have the advantage that they put information in a form that a builder
can use. Photographs help with structural details. Many of the boats
recorded by Heath and Chapelle have deteriorated badly since they recorded
them and recording what boats are left is ever more important since for
the most part, no new specimens are being built within the culture of
origin.
As for lines taken by knowledgeable people in the past, I think these are
good for the most part, especially where more than one boat was available
for reference and originals were still in use. However, based on my
own attempts to build replicas and comments I have seen from other
builders, there is the occasional drawing that does not properly represent
the original. If you have never built a replica of a particular type of
boat, then you probably won't be able to tell that the drawing is off
until after you start using the boat. However, even a bad drawing is better
than no drawing at all. If you build a replica from a bad drawing, you at
least have a place to start from and improve on if only by trial and error
to arrive at a better interpretation of what the original was like.
Wolfgang Brinck ---------------------- wolfgang.brinck@hksystems.com