Subject: Re: [baidarka] Subject: FW: [buzz] old photo's
From: Harvey Golden (harveydgolden@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 18 2003 - 17:49:47 EDT
Dear All,
I must respectfully state that my experience paddling
'skeg-bowed' E. Canadian kayaks runs contrary to
Eugene Arima's statement cited below about the deep
forefoot at the base of the prow-- specifically that
it contributes to maintaining a 'straight direction'
of travel.
I've built and used 5 different types of
East-Canadian-form kayaks (each replicas of historical
examples) and have found that while they do travel
with the bow immersed, it does not contribute
positively to tracking. My experience is quite the
opposite, actually, though this is not to state Arima
is entirely incorrect: His experiences are numerous
of course, and his statement surely reflects this
and/or the numerous people from the E. Canadian arctic
that he has interviewed.
One possibility is that he was told that the
'skeg-bow' helps with steering or directional control,
which may have been interpreted as "tracking." These
sound very similar and are related, but are distinctly
different with regards to these kayaks. I find the
skeg-bow contributes greatly to steering, but often
gives a negatively dynamic directional stability-- it
swerves. The swerving is controllable, no doubt in
large part by very long paddles.
It is also interesting to note that long paddles were
also used with narrower kayaks, for example: The
longest paddle I've ever heard of (anyone know of
longer ones?)is about 13' long and is positively
associated with an 18" wide Caribou hunting kayak--
these are depicted in-scale in Arima's "A Contextual
Study of the Caribou Eskimo Kayak" (1975:98, fig. 20)
All the Best,
Harvey Golden
--- Greg Stamer <gstamer@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Douglas,
>
> This same topic recently came up on the Qajaq USA
> forum.
>
> According to Eugene Arima in "A Contextual Study of
> the Caribou Eskimo
> Kayak", the Eastern Canadian kayaks could be as long
> as 27 feet with a width
> of 23 - 28" inches and from 60 to 150 pounds, with a
> paddle commonly around
> 10 to 12 feet long. Eugene writes, "These heavy
> kayaks were mainly used at
> sea for sea mammal and waterfowl hunting, but some
> lancing of caribou at
> water crossings was also done with them as in the
> interiors of Baffin Island
> and northwest Quebec".
>
> Regarding the "bow skeg" effect, Eugene writes,
> "Unlike all other kayaks,
> the greatest width is at the back of the cockpit
> which itself is placed well
> aft in the total length but is actually just behind
> the midpoint in terms of
> hull volume since much of the fore section is a
> long, narrow, rising prow.
> The after section is wide and shallow. This
> configuration means that the
> craft, unlike other kinds of kayaks, rides with the
> front immersed more than
> the back, the deep forefoot at the base of the long
> prow helping to maintain
> straight direction."
>
> Greg Stamer
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