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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Baidarka thingamajig n stuff
Posted By: Pete W P
Date: Sunday, 23 January 2000, at 10:14 a.m.
I've read more than once about people wondering what the purpose of that double pronged whale bone thingamajig on the bow of a baidarka . I have a couple of ideas on that....
First off , Im guessing that thingamajig at the bow is whale bone to protect the more vulnerable "fabric" of sealskin from abrasive encounters with ice flows. Streching the sealskin over anykind of bow structure wouldnt last too long in an ice flow environment.
Next is that double pronged thingamajig. My guess here is that the designers in their crudeness had no concept of a "bowbulb" reducing drag and so on. My guess is that it is supposed to resemble a mouth of some sort. Be it salmon or otherwise. Perhaps to a superstitious people this aggressive looking mouth on the front of their kayak was believed to intimidate other predators like polarbear and certain seals. Or, perhaps, being that THEY were infact predators themselves in search of seals, whales or whatever, adorning their bow with a mouth like design was akin to the same spirit the pilots of WWII who adorned the cowling of the their fighter plain with a red mouthed, white toothy grin - hence the flying tigers.
At the very least, I'm assuming this whale bone thing helped spare the more vulnerable sealskin from cutting ice flow abrasions.
Pete [No I still dont have my &$^#@^ kayak kit yet]
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