Subject: Re: [baidarka] Mystery Dowels
From: Harry M Spitz (harryspitz@juno.com)
Date: Mon Feb 18 2002 - 12:35:02 EST
Hi All
I just found David's Small Boat Journal article, on his site, which
clearly shows that the dowels are cleverly lashed to the gunwales. This
lashing changes my perspective on the issue. The dowels act as a spacer
while the lashing acts to hold the ends of the boat in tension. The fog
has lifted and I think that I am beginning to see some light.
Thank You for your help
Harry Spitz
Bill,
This is the most reasonable suggestion yet. The forward dowel is 1cm
across the width, while the rear dowel is 1.5cm at midpoint and 1.2cm as
it enters the gunwales.
David
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 09:30:06 -0000
From: "Bill Samson" <bill.samson@tesco.net>
Subject: Re: [baidarka] Mystery Dowels
Hi,
Just took a look at Zimmerly's pics of the Lowie kayak frame. The rear
'dowel' is clearly shown. It doesn't go all the way through the gun'ls,
but acts as a spacer between them. There is a hole drilled vertically
through each gun'l in way of the dowel and the two gunls are lashed
together, with the lashings passing through these holes.
This seems sensible to me, because all that's holding the gun'ls
together at the ends is the friction of the little dowels going into the
bow blocks and stern blocks. This lashing and spacer hold the gun'ls
together in the event of the friction not being enough. Once the skin
is on, though, there's little likelihood of the gun'ls springing apart.
But the Aleuts frequently replaced the skins of their boats, so it'd
make sense to have a frame that wouldn't fall apart when the skin came
off. After all, these frames are designed to 'work' and be flexible, so
the little dowels would be quite likely to work loose in time.
Any other hypotheses about their function?
Bill
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