Wooden Kayaks:
You Can’t Build Just One
February-March 2001
This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Harvey Golden
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Harvey Golden on the Columbia River in his replica of an 1892 South Greenland kayak. Photo by Don Golden |
I had a sudden notion to build a kayak in the summer of 1994. I could hardly even call it an interest, for I knew nothing about it, and frankly still didn't upon the completion of my first kayak. I merely wanted a small boat that I could travel around in and I couldn't afford one. So I chose to build my own, out of wood and canvas-based loosely on the Greenland-style.
It tuned out to be a rather hard boat to use-very unstable, with poor maneuverability. But with persistence, patience, and because it was only kayak I had, I slowly developed the skills and ability to use it in flat water, and eventually in surf conditions
During this time, I became curious as to how traditional kayaks felt in the water. Howard Chappelle's section on skin-boats in his book The Bark Canoes and Skinboats of North America showed a phenomenal variety of shapes, sizes, and proportions within arctic kayaks. I wanted to try them all, and found that the only way was to build full-size replicas.
Six years and 33 kayaks later, I have still not built all the types from the arctic, although I have made many sub-types and/or variations of certain forms. Each kayak is very different-both in construction, form, and performance. It is a very research-intensive pursuit, especially since I've tried to mimic the regional joinery variations right down to the scantlings and lashing-patterns, where information is available.
My first experience with a kayak replica was very pleasant despite the kayak's diminutive size-a 17" wide Aleut kayak from the 1840's (MAE 593-76 as published in David Zimmerly's book Qayaq).
Pleased with the results and experience, I sought to replicate more obscure kayak types with design features that do not necessarily lend well to modern recreational paddling. I built a 15-3/4" wide Copper Inuit kayak, 23' in length, and then three other extreme-formed Central Canadian kayaks including a 28' long single kayak.
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Launching a replica kayak is much like stepping into a time machine |
These kayaks as well as most traditional types require much patience and practice. They will not give immediate results and instant satisfaction. Traditional kayaks are highly refined and developed-also very specialized for certain conditions and hunting patterns.
A big part of the 'patience' is having trust in the design and/or original designer. A kayak replica may be hard to steer, hard to balance, or even downright infuriating on account of any number of characteristics. With time and an open, optimistic mind, one can find the 'essence' of such a kayak. By studying the context of the original kayak, one can start to understand why a particular kayak was made with low initial stability, or why one was made to veer sharply when paddling has stopped.
In a more abstract sense, kayak replicas have a great appeal to my imagination and intellect. Their forms inspire awe and genuine wonderment-especially when one considers the harsh context of their origin, and the diversity of their forms.
Launching a replica kayak is much like stepping into a time machine-it drops you into a different time, culture, and experience as you leave the shore. You realize that the original kayak, now gathering dust in the backrooms of a national museum, once gave somebody much the same feel on the water that you are now experiencing.
This curiosity with traditional kayaks has led me to conduct research at many museums. Having worked for so long from other researchers' scale drawings, it is an incredible experience to go and see the original kayaks in museums, measure and survey them, draw up the lines and details, and then to create a full-size replica for my use. My experience with these many replicas has been very good. I can honestly say I haven't made a replica that I thought was bad.
Certainly not all are good for all types of paddling, but all are usable, educational, challenging, and- more often than not-extremely fun to use, and stunning to look at.
Harvey Golden lives in Portland, Oregon. His passion for arctic kayaks has taken him to Baffin Island in Northern Canada and to kayak museums in Europe. He will be a speaker at the Okanagan Paddle Festival, June 16-17. ©
On MuseumsWith regard to museums visited, most of them do not have kayaks on display at all-they are all in storage and inaccessible. Several that do have kayaks on display are: * the Canadian Canoe Museum (Peterborough, Ontario: www.canoemuseum.net) |
