Mark,

There was an article in Scientific American, I believe that had Greg Barton paddling an Aleut Baidarka. I think his times were as good as in his racing kayak. The article was by George Dyson. I'll try to look it up next week. I'm headed to the San Juans for the weekend.

Mike

: I was discussing kayaks with an x-kayaker and he mentioned tests that were
: conducted in Norway of various kayak designs. Apparently the best design
: was an Arctic [Eskimo] kayak, years of evolution beat out the 'max-surfs'.
: Has anyone heard of these tests, what the criteria were, and which kayak
: design came out on top? Also, I would like to know what a 'fish-form' is.
: What distinguishes it and what is it good for? My last question has to do
: with the hi-volume [bulbous] bow of the Greenlander. One site mentioned
: that the high volume bow made the kayak more sea worthy. I can see that
: coming down off a wave the bow would help prevent the kayak from
: nose-diving but wouldn't it also
: prevent the bow from slicing through the crest of a wave the way most
: commercial yaks seem designed to do? Or maybe the designs can be combined?
: Or maybe the Eskimo needed the hi-volume bow to pack home all those seals?
: What do you think? [ps. thanks to Mike and Bill for the feedback, you
: helped get my yak one step closer to the water, now is that going to be
: 9oz or 13oz poly hmmm.]mark