Eastern Arctic-Like Kayak, Performance Report

I finally did it. Finished the EA kayak with some deviations from the traditional norm, painted it and headed out to the water to see how it paddled.

There it is by the side of the water.  Launch imminent as soon as I get in and start paddling.  Weight is between 50 and 60 pounds I'm guessing.  Length is just short of 18 feet about 16 of which are in the water. Beam is somewhere around 27 inches. Two paddles are resting on the boat.  One Greenland style, 88 inches long and the other, an Aleut style with a 3 inch wide blade at 120 inches long, yes, that's right, ten feet long.
The big question was what sort of speed a flat bottomed boat could be paddled.
I had my GPS with me.  At the start of the test while I was still fresh, I managed to get the boat up to 5.6 mph. Cruising speed seemed to be between 3 and 4 mph. I did my usual two mile circuit once around Ballena Island. Wind was variable, maybe up to 15 mph and wind blown waves were about 1 foot max.  So not much of a rough weather test.
Overall, the boat seems to move about adequately.  Turning with the flat bottom is easy.  The boat responds quickly.  I thought that staying on track might be a problem but it turned out not to be.  The boat had no particular tendency to turn into or out of the wind and it had adequate length so it wasn't yawing right and left with each stroke.  Paddling both down and upwind was possible without any undue steering effort required. So all in all, the boat performed well.  I would still like to take it out on a rough day when waves are more like two feet, like a normal summer afternoon on the bay.
I ended up using the 120 inch paddle for most of the trip since it seemed to be a better match to the boat than the 88 inch paddle which required more effort to reach the water.
Overall, I felt that I needed more experience with the boat.  The initial outing left me feeling that its weight and speed was such that I need to discover some more positive attributes for the boat or it would not get much use. 
Speed is of course an ill defined measure.  What matters is efficiency.  Overall, the width and flat bottom of the boat are a combination that require a good deal more effort to make the boat go than just about any other kayak style that I have built.  If I were to build another version of this boat, I would probably decrease overall width and increase flare to the sides from the 10 degree flare that I put into this model. Increased flare would decrease the width of the bottom. I probably would also go with bent ribs to reduce weight of the boat and have some V in the bottom.  With lighter weight and less resistance  to movement this style of boat would be adequate for recreational use.
As I mentioned earlier, the boat also needs some rough water testing to see how the flat bottom handles going over waves.

Eastern Arctic Kayak Construction - adding the deck beams

Construction progresses.  After I set up the deck, I started adding deck beams.  They are temporarily nailed in place 3/4 inches below the top of the gunwales. 

Before starting to add deck beams, it is a good idea to stabilize the deck by lashing the ends together and also doweling the two sides together so they don't shift with respect with each other which would cause asymmetry in the deck.

The deck prior to pegging the ends and dropping in deck beams.

And here, at the end of the day, all the flat deck beams are trial nailed in place.  You could of course dowel all the deck beams in place as you go but trial nailing them lets you do some last minute adjustments in deck shape before committing to more permanent joinery.

The last two deck beams to be added are the two curved ones just fore of the cockpit.  Shaping them is more time consuming than shaping the flat ones.  Unlike the flat deck beams which are mounted 3/4 inches below the top of the gunwales, the curved beams are mounted flush with the tops of the gunwales.  A batten is temporary clamped in place to show the curve that the deck stringer will take.  The beam just in front of the cockpit will elevate the front of the coaming 4 inches above the deck.

And here is a view down the length of the boat with all the deck beams in place.  The number of beams, coincidentally is less than in a traditional boat to keep down the overall weight of the finished boat.

And just before I started adding in the two curved deck beams, I had a crisis of faith about where the widest part of the boat should be.  Seemed like it wasn't far back enough.  But then I checked back with the drawing in Arima's book on EA kayaks and it appears that my placement was OK.  Seems that the original for this adaptation was a demo boat done for a Canadian museum and was shorter than the type usually is because available lumber was only 16 feet long.  So a shorter version with a slightly more forward beam was built.  In any case, the first boat of a type is never just right and gets modified when the second one is built.

Eastern Arctic Kayak - Historical Construction Photos

I have some historical photos of Eastern Arctic kayak construction.  I have no idea where I got them.  But here they are.  Mostly what I want to comment on is the fact that while these photos don't reveal all that much, they do reveal some general specifics about Arctic kayak construction methodology.
The most important revelation to me is that these boats were built without the benefit of any sort of building platform other than what looks like pretty bumpy ground.  What this means is that in order to get a symmetrical boat, the builders had to rely on the parts of the boat itself to achieve symmetry.  The deck, once built became the building platform for the rest of the boat.

This boat frame appears to be almost done.  The builder appears to be doing some trimming with a hand saw, or maybe he is just using the deck of the kayak for a saw horse to cut a piece of wood.

Meanwhile, a little earlier in the building process, this builder has inserted some rib blanks into their mortises.  Bending and trimming the ribs remains to be done. 

Women are covering a finished frame in canvas.  It looks as though they will have some canvas left over.  The fact that they are using canvas indicates that this photo was taken very near the end of the era of kayak construction.  And the building site is remarkable for its ruggedness.  No nicely swept floor, strictly open air.

Eastern Arctic Kayaks - Hudson Strait

Here's a bunch of pictures of Hudson Strait kayaks.  They came to me by way of Bill Samson, I believe.  They are labeled something like Burwell1, Burwell2. Wikipedia has some info on Burwell Here.
These kayaks are among the longest kayaks ever made.  Why they were made the way they were made is probably a matter of evolution in response to local conditions.

This photo is called, "going ashore at Port Burwell."  Looks like plenty of ice in winter.  Apparently kayaking here was a summer activity.

Caption: "Port Burwell, 1919." Looks like a sheltered Fjord suitable for the paddling of flat bottomed kayaks.

Wow, look at that nose.  Overhang on these things was up to 4 feet.  So if the boat was 22 foot long, length on the water was more like 18 feet.  The long overhang appears to have about as much function as fins on a Cadillac, but I suspect that it actually is a useful way to get a flat bottomed boat over a wave without undue pounding. Also note the long paddle.  Looks to be about ten feet long with narrow blades, 3 inches max, maybe less.

One more time a little more from the side.

And here they are racing.  The paddlers are generating a good deal of froth like they would at the starting line.  Note the paddler farthest right with his high angle of attack on his paddle.  For normal cruising, the paddles were supposedly held much lower down, even balanced on the foredeck to spare the paddler's arms.

Flat-Bottomed Kayaks of the Eastern Arctic

I am about to launch off on construction of a flat bottomed kayak of the Eastern Arctic type.  Since I know nothing about these kayaks, I don't know what to expect.  Supposedly they are reasonably fast in spite of their flat bottoms.  The big plus of these kayaks would be their stability.  We'll see.

Eugene Arima has an article on this boat type HERE from which the illustration above was excerpted. The U of Alaska Press also has a book out on the kayaks of the Eastern Arctic. 
I also just paid ten bucks to get a manual from David Zimmerly on this type of kayak.
Zimmerly also has a reprint of his article in Sea Kayaker Magazine available.
And Harvey Golden has created a replica of the type of boat.
More to come.