''West Greenland Design by Gerald Maroske''

West Greenland Design 1995 (GUM) - A Modified "Hartel" Kayak

The frame contains four sections which are joined by metal joints.

Total length of the kayak is 5.35m and width is 52cm. It weighs 20kg.

The frames are made of seven-layered, nine millimeter birch plywood except the two main frames in the middle, which are doubled to 18mm. The massive parts are all ash and the gunwales/1st chines are stiffened by 3mm 6-layered birch plywood.

The joints are made of aluminium and stainless steel parts and all screws are made of stainless steel. Most nuts used are selflocked. All joints are handmade. The joints for the keel and the joints separating the fore and aft sections are tightened by hexagon screws. All other joints are assembled without tools.

The skin is polyester-reinforced-PVC (truck cover) for the hull and cotton/polyester for the deck. The hull is made of 3 parts each side (~36m to sew) but the deck is one piece. The inside of the deck is sealed with a layer of silicone (used for sealing windows etc.).

Assembling starts with the rear section inserted first. This is done because the cockpit coaming is installed with an angle, which provides a better in and out and this is valid both for paddler and framework. A special tightener is used to pull the keelparts apart and stretch the skin. When the keel is joined, both gunwale-joints are also pulled apart one-by-one and joined. The stringers are now joined easily. The last two frames are inserted starting with frame No.4 (backrest) and then No.3 (kneeframe or masik). When this is done the deck stringers are inserted and the last thing is to attach is the cockpit-coaming (steam-bent out of two parts, lip and ring are both ash of 1cm thickness, for a procedure look at Chris Cunningham's article "Building a greenland kayak" in the 'Seakayaker' magazine).

Assembly time is 35 minutes for me (Gerald).

This is the nicest folding Kayak I have seen so far (Hendrik), the joinery is a dream: