 Anthony
D. BeckerAssociate Professor St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota 55057 |
Office: Holland Hall
414-C |
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General description of the boatThe boat is a slightly altered replica of the double baidarka in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution cataloged as USNM 160336. Line drawings and some details are available on Zimmerly's web site under "Kayak Types" in a PDF file. (Click here to view the plans.) Specifications are: length: 20'-7", beam: 22", unskinned frame weight: 30 lbs., skinned boat weight: 45 lbs., depth from sheer to keelson: 12". "Slightly altered" means that I changed the bow design to that on a boat in Berkeley's Hearst Museum of Anthropology (formerly Lowie Museum) known as LM 2-14886. This is the bow design used in Brinck's The Aleutian Kayak and in Zimmerly's "Building the Aleut One-hole Baidarka." (See bibliography and links for citations.) [Return to Home | To Top of Page] Photos of the completed boat: (more photos below)
[Return to Home | To Top of Page] ToolsHere are some of the hand tools I used that I found particularly useful..
[Return to Home | To Top of Page] PaddlesI made two Aleutian-style paddles following the plan in figure 4 of Zimmerly's "Arctic Paddle Design" (Sea Kayaker, 1(3):8-15. Go to articles from 1984 under "Z" on his "Bibliography" page.) An Aleutian paddle has a handle (loom) that is egg-shaped in cross-section and has a ridge along the back edge of the blade. The ridge prevents blade flutter. Both paddles were made out of 5/4 x 6" clear red cedar boards. ("5/4" means 1¼" before sanding.) First, a 1" strip was ripped off one edge. Then, the outline was cut with an electric saber saw and hand saw. Next, the 1" strip was glued to the center of the paddle blank to form the ridge along the back of the blades and loom. Shaping and carving were completed with block plane, 1" chisel, Stanley Surform half-round plane, and, most of all, the curved carving knife. (see above). Paddles were finished in red and black traditional designs and sealed with a linseed oil/turpentine mixture. The red color was made using artists' oil paint mixed with turpentine. The black was a stock Minwax wood stain. [click here for a photo of the paddles] [Return to Home | To Top of Page] PlansI used the plans available from Zimmerly's web site under "Kayak Types." Look for "Aleut two-hole" and USNM 160336. The bow design is from the Aleut one-hole LM 2-14886 on the same page. The one-hole plans are also included in Zimmerly's articles on "Building the Aleut One-hole Baidarka" also available on his web site under "Bibliography, Z." [Return to Home | To Top of Page] Woods used
[Return to Home | To Top of Page] Things I learned and/or might have done differentlyMaking and scarfing the gunwales: I don't know about you but I can't find 20-foot sections of clear wood (spruce/pine/fir/cedar) for any price within my budget. I could find 12-foot sections of clear fir and these are what I used. I recommend getting boards twice as wide as your gunwales. Then, rip them lengthwise and use them so the original ends are at the same gunwale end and what were the same faces are both inside or outside. This way, your gunwales will have a similar propensity to bend. This will make it easier to get the boat symmetrical. As to scarfing, I scarfed the faces together and then glued and doweled the joints. Peterson (see bibliography) and others show the usual scarf was a "hook scarf" on the edges. I figured the face scarf would be held in place by the skin and any blow to the scarf would compress rather than sheer the joint. Either way you do it, I recommend the longest cure time epoxy you can find (60 min. is best; 30 min. is OK) and dowels at alternating angles also glued). (The scarf joints in the gunwales and the coamings are the only places I used glue.) Design Issues: In Minnesota, a kayak up to 19' length costs $12 per three years to register. Over 19', it costs $35. Granted, that's only about $8 per year but it is a big step. If I had it to do over again, I might have built a 19' boat just because I'm cheap. Finishing the wood: I would have used teak oil on the whole frame rather than start with the linseed/turpentine mix I used on the deck, keelson, bow, and stern. After waterproofing, I applied paste wax to the frame where it would contact the skin so that the skin would not stick. (See painting, below.) Lashing: Brewery Creek (Morris) vs. Traditional. The lashing described by Morris, the Brewery Creek method, is a secure "square" lashing and passes around the chine stringers twice, once on each side of the rib. The traditional lashing (e.g., as described in Zimmerly and Brinck) passes diagonally around the chine stringers. I did some of each type as it was my first boat and I was experimenting. In the cockpit areas, I used the Brewery Creek method. In my next boat I will use it exclusively. Though it uses more lashing, it gives a tighter hold and is less likely to pull the stringers out of alignment. Size of the coaming form: This picture will make it clear if you're confused. Unlike Greenland kayaks, the coaming is lashed to the frame so the size of the form is dependent on the frame's dimensions. Of course, if you followed Brinck's suggestions, your openings would be custom-sized anyway. Sealing the fabric edges with Fray Check I started off using a flame source to seal the edges of the fabric. After a while, I switched to a sewing product called "Fray Check" by Dritz. All fabric stores will have it. While you're there, get some large needles for sewing the skin. Fray Check is waterproof and fast drying. Put the Fray Check where you plan to cut and it will spread to about 1 cm. wide. Cut along the outer edge. Be careful not to drip elsewhere on the skin as your varnish may not stick there. Stitching: I used a shoelace style stitch as shown in Morris. Click here for more information. For all stitching, I used braided fishing line. I started with 50# test but needed a little extra and got some 80# because they were out of the 50#. Stitching around the bow: Using some scrap skin material, I cut a "bias" strip long enough to go from the "nose" around the "mouth" of the bow section. "Bias" means to cut on the diagonal; it makes a piece that will conform better to irregular shapes. I sealed the strip's edges and tacked it in place around the mouth opening. When I sewed around the mouth, I made sure to sew the skin on one side to the skin on the other and also to the bias strip. If I had it to do over again, or on my next baidarka, I'll take the skin on each side and tuck it under and stitch only to the bias strip as shown in this illustration. Stitching the around the coaming: I got a nicely defined lip on my coaming using the method described here. Painting the skin: I used Varathane "Diamond Spar Urethane" (exterior, water-based) and am ambivalent about it. The up-sides are that it is low-odor and easy to clean up and does not stick to the frame if the frame is oiled and waxed (as Morris notes in his book). It costs about $40 per gallon and I needed that and an extra quart (another $14). The down-sides are that it is not good at sealing seams and yellows over the winter. Abrasion resistance seems low, too. Strangely, when my yellowed boat got out into the sun and then into water, the yellow went away. Over the second winter it seems to have yellowed less. On boats #2 and #3 I am using a marine varnish. Pulling deck lines through tiny holes: I used 1/8" braided nylon for the deck lines fed through the skin and 1/8" holes in the gunwales. To feed them through, I sealed the end of a long length of line and tied a knot in the other end. I made the sealed end pointy by trimming it a little with scissors. Then I took a length of my stitching line (80#-test braided fishing line) and "frapped" a length onto it. (Assume the long end of the deck line goes to the left and the long end of the stitching line goes to the right.) Make a loop in the stitching line and place the bend in the loop about 1" from the end of the deck line. Take the short end of the stitching line and wrap it tightly around the deck line starting as close to the sealed end as possible and working towards the bottom of the loop. When you have about 1/2" wrapped, take the end of the stitching line you're wrapping with and put it through the loop. Pull the long end of the stitching line to tighten the loop. Put the stitching line through the hole in the gunwale from the inside, first. wrap a scrap of wood around the line and pull. Thread any toggles, etc., onto the line and put is through the hole on the other side. Pull it through, knot and cut off the excess. If you use a long length of line, you won't have to re-frap. Just knot the other end and repeat. [Return to Home | To Top of Page] Building picturesConstruction started with the paddles on July 23, 2005, and ended with the installation of deck lines on September 27, 2005. Click the thumbnail for a larger picture. Use "Back" to return. [Return to Home | To Top of Page] AccessoriesGet some float bags. I purchased two from Gaia Paddle Sports: a bow and a "rodeo" stern. Get a paddle float. I found cheap bamboo mats (see "complete inside" picture above) for each position and used leftover polyurethane to seal them. |
All original materials are copyright © 2003-6 Anthony D. Becker,
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