To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
From: Bram van der Sluys <bvdsluys@direct.ca>
Subject: Re: baidarka carving in s
Message-Id: <E10BtmS-0003Z4-00@edam.direct.ca>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 21:07:44 -0800
If one looks at old artists drawings and sketches of native watercraft (many
found in George Dyson's excellent book) there were several styles of kayaks
with gunwhale to keelson's depth in the range of twelve inches (305mm) this
with a narrow beam creates a very circular hull form (which is also very
unstable) many of which required ballasting with stones to keep upright.
Those types of boats also required expert paddlers with years of experience.
Other kayaks (those like in Wolfgang's book) had 9" (225mm) depth and with a
22" (560mm) have elliptical hull sections which have the good secondary
stability which we have come to expect of modern kayaks.
Regards
Bram
At 06:11 AM 2/13/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Everybody knows how clever the Aleuts were in figuring out how to
>build boats with narrow water lines but high volume top sides, which
>not only makes them rise to waves easily, but also (although it seems
>to have been of no interest to the Aleuts)makes them easy to roll. And
>I don't want to be a complainer, I know that it's seldom possible to
>optimize all the desirable characteristics of an engineered object,
>but I was in a pool last week working with a guy in an anas acuta and
>couldn't help noticing that when he leaned a little, his boat turned
>as if it had seen a snake in the water. I can lean until the gunwale's
>under, and not much of anything happens except a display of the boat's
>amazing secondary stability.
>
>Looking at the shape of the boat, I can see why this is-it's has just
>about the same underwater shape leaned as it does straight up. What I
>want to know is, are all baidarkas like this? Did I build a bum boat?
>Is there a way to fix this without giving up the baidarka's other
>sterling characteristics?
>
>
>
>
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