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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Re: Baidarka thingamajig n stuff
Posted By: Mike Hanks In Response To: Baidarka thingamajig n stuff (Pete W P)
Date: Wednesday, 26 January 2000, at 9:38 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]
Pete,
As greg said the bifid bow was wood not bone. The bifid bow provides a fine entry for ease of paddling, and a longer waterline for a higher top speed, but also has a lot of volume up high to prevent plunging. The shape in essence becomes concave, a desired shape at the bow of kayaks (Nick uses concave shapes on the bows of at least some of his kayaks). A concave shape cannot easily be obtained by stretching skin over a concave surface. The split in the bow allows the skin to be sewn together, to create the concave shape.
They may not have fully understood all of the mathmatics of the science behind their kayaks, but I do think they new what worked. The Aluet baidarka is one of the most seaworthy kayaks ever made (in the hands of an experienced paddler), and the seas they were paddled in were some of the roughest. I don't think it is just superstition or coincidence that the best kayaks came from the area with the roughest seas. These kayaks were their livelihood. If they didn't work well the hunters, and their families would not live. There may have been some superstition involved, but I feel there was a lot more to it than that. The baidarkas were also made with a multi-piece keel, that helped disribute the stresses to the gunwales, for a stronger more flexible hull. These kayaks are still winning races against contemporary designs.
The umiaks from the same area were also incredibly seaworthy boats, that are still far superior for that environment than many other designs used today.
Mike
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