|
Replicating
History
With their extreme differences, the Hindeloopen and the Brielle
were prime candidates for replication. Through reconstructing
and using them in varying sea conditions, I hoped to gain a deeper
understanding of each. I started with the Hindeloopen and, needless
to say, had to lengthen the cockpit opening to ensure a fit. The
cockpit of the original is 16 3/4" long, and my replica's
is 19" long. (I am 5' 8 1/2" tall and weigh 125 pounds.)
To maintain a snug fit, I did not adjust the overall depth that
was clearly the original's ideal. The cockpit opening of the Brielle
replica had to be similarly adjusted: 14 3/4" long on the
original and 19 1/4" on the replica. (No other dimensions
were adjusted beyond my conjectural reconstruction of the damaged
original.)
In
my construction of the kayak replicas, I borrowed heavily from
H.C. Petersen's Instruction in Kayak Building (Atuakkiorfik, 2001
reprinted edition) and also relied on the chapter "Old Greenland
Kayaks" in Petersen's Skinboats of Greenland (National Museum
of Denmark, 1986) and my own observations of the kayaks. My view
was limited to what I could observe through the cockpit opening
(a view entirely obscured in the case of the Hindeloopen). Having
seen and studied other old kayaks was of considerable help in
building the replicas.
Differences
in construction between older (roughly 1600-1800) and more modern
(1800-2000) Greenland kayaks are few, though significant. Lashings
binding the lower edges of the gunwales together appear throughout
the kayak's hull in older examples, anchored to the gunwale's
lower edges. In more recent Greenlandish kayaks, such ties appear
only at the ends, if at all. Deck beams and ribs are more closely
spaced—about every 8 to 10 inches. Aft deck stringers were
either missing or never installed in the older kayaks. Petersen
describes their gunwales as going to the very ends of the kayak,
instead of being extended via a stem-post (or plank) as in more
recent kayaks.
Some
material substitutions had to be made in creating the replicas:
I used tarred nylon seining twine for the lashings in the Hindeloopen
replica, and split black plastic crate-strapping material to simulate
the baleen lashings in the Brielle kayak. Both kayak replicas
were covered with nylon cloth instead of sealskin. I sealed the
fabric with hand-tinted oil-based polyurethane.
Click
diagram for larger version.
Previous
page
|
