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West Greenland Kayak Build: Saran Wrap test 1 and

West Greenland Kayak Build: Saran Wrap test 1 and 2. FYI there’s music on this one.
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When designing in skin on frame there’s always a dynamic tension between gunwales that are flared enough to project a reasonable sheer line, but still vertical enough to project the ribs down at an angle that will allow for reasonable stability. Over the years this has pushed me towards designs with low primary stability, but high secondary stability, that are noticeably quicker than most commercial kayaks. I feel good about the compromises but it does get challenging to preserve stability as kayaks approach 20 inches or narrower.
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This isn’t the most stable Greenland kayak but it is towards the upper end of stability for true traditional Greenland hunting kayaks. The unmodified stability feels about halfway between a surf ski and a modern sea kayak.
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For people looking for more stability, historic examples give us a couple of powerful options. One is to add a small secondary stringer to the outside of the bottom of the gunwale and the other is to tie a larger secondary stringer to the ribs in the center section of the kayak. You can also just scale it larger, and as long as you’re not sitting with more than about 3 inches of freeboard, you’re still within historic limits.
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In this test, the small secondary stringer noticeably increased secondary stability but had no effect on primary stability. I did notice a small decrease in speed from effectively adding 1” to the waterline width.
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My general initial paddling impression is very positive. The kayak is quick, responsive, comfortable, and has a perfect balance between tracking and maneuverability (it’s actually a little loose but that will change with the real skin and rub strips). The small shaping changes and the 2% scale up really wake up a kayak that formerly felt just a bit stuck in the water at my size. It edge turns extremely well and I will be very curious to see it if that controlability persists in rough water.
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There are some small nagging issues that will probably require me to build a new frame before I can finish the design update, but this is excellent progress. More testing in the next posts.

Instagram‘s new video features are giving me ser

Instagram‘s new video features are giving me serious frustration right now so if you notice videos popping up and disappearing that’s why.
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I’m about five days into testing this kayak every day with different modifications on the water and I’ve got a ton to say about it as soon as I can actually post videos to illustrate the things I want to talk about, but for now I think I’ll take a moment to address a common question:
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Why this sort of testing is necessary in the first place?
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There’s a tendency to think that if a technology was used for centuries it has reached a pinnacle of refinement, and maybe that’s true in some cases but it’s also true that these kayaks were wildly variant across their temporal and geographic ranges, and for the most part the nuance of the traditional shaping knowledge has been lost.
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Outside of the Arctic it will never be possible to regain the knowledge of how to best shape these kayaks for seal hunting, but what we can do is experiment with a variety of Greenland hunting kayak shapes to create a Greenland kayak that is simultaneously authentic enough to honor the history of these watercraft, while being user-friendly enough to keep that history alive on the water.
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Until now I’ve chosen to focus on near replicas of museum kayaks but recently I’ve given myself the freedom to mix and match between different collected examples for a broader palate of design options.
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Having paddled this kayak in seven different configurations now, what is really surprising me is how much small changes make a huge impact on the feel and handling of the boat. Scale is also a big issue here. The same kayak scaled up or down 2% is a completely different boat on on the water.
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So lots of cool stuff coming up and I’m going to pause the time lapse until I’m done with the testing phase here and then we will resume when I’ve made my final shaping decisions. Hopefully I can get a video up tomorrow so you can see this thing on the water and I can talk about the specifics of some of the things I’m learning!
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#greenlandkayak #skinonframekayak

I’ve never been a big fan of plastic wrapping sk

I’ve never been a big fan of plastic wrapping skin on frame kayaks to test them, because the wrinkles from the wrap and the difference in shape from the water pressure change the performance so much that it really limits what you can learn this way. I can also skin a boat for real nearly as fast as I can wrap it and test it, and also I don’t feel great about dumping even more plastic crap onto the planet.
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I would be lying, however, to say that just the frustration of actually wrapping the boat isn’t a big factor here. In the first video here you can see the method I’ve always used with two people wrapping and one person wrestling the bucking boat trying to hold it still.
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So that’s how I’ve always done this, but then yesterday after testing a modification and then removing it to compare the difference, my buddy Jared suggested that we wrap it upside down which changed EVERYTHING. Not only was it twice as easy to wrap but it was faster, we used less plastic wrap, less tape, and the wrap came out smooth enough that I could actually get a sense of the speed of the kayak on the water!
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Unfortunately the difference in
boat feel from the wrap alone negated what I could’ve learned from the comparison test, so tomorrow I’m gonna have to repeat this whole process again with identical wrapping techniques!
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So for anyone who’s interested the technique we settled on was to wrap from bow to stern, wrapping 4 inches further on each revolution all the way to the stern and then carefully all the way back to the bow. The sequence is important here to prevent the wrap from peeling up and creating drag. Then a single strip of tape down the keel and the chines and some tape reinforcement around the coaming so I can cut the hole.
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I’ll post a paddling video tomorrow.
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#boattest #skinonframekayak #boatbuilder #prototyping #skinboat

West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 5: End plate

West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 5: End plates, aft deck stringers, and Masik. Total build time so far, about 24 hours.
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The stems are joined to the gunwales with thin wooden plates that get recessed into the wood. I used to make these from ash but I’ve been really enjoying working with cherry lately.
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The short stringers on deck just behind the cockpit weren’t universal on Greenland kayaks, but they were common on this type so I add them.
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I always wait to install the wide deck beam at the front of the cockpit (called a Masik) because it needs to fit tightly across the paddlers thighs but not so tightly that it presents a safety hazard. The only way I’ve ever found to get that exactly right is to fit it to the individual with the frame complete.
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I made the masik out of beech this time simply because it was the only piece of wood I had around that was the right size. I thinned it as much as I dared to keep the weight down.
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#greenlandkayak #boatbuilding #woodworking #kayakbuild #diyproject #woodenboat

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 4: Keel, stringers

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 4: Keel, stringers, and stems. Build time so far, about 20 hours.
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I love how the music came together for this one!
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The actual work in this video is a little over three hours but I spent the better part of a day and a half trying to decide exactly where to locate the stringers.
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On the original museum kayak they are much higher than what I decided on, which might actually help with the stability, paddling, and rolling performance. The only problem is that the skin would be touching or almost touching the ribs.
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From what I can tell traditional Arctic kayak builders didn’t care much about that, but I feel like I would have a full scale revolt on my hands if I released a kayak plan set where the skin is touching the ribs!
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Something else that’s different here is the straight-keel to stem joint. On the original kayak the lower stem was likely carved into the keel which is difficult to understand considering the huge increase in wood and effort required. Even with modern tools and easily available lumber there’s no way I’m going to start with a 14 foot long 1x6 just to get rid of most of it!
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The final difference mentioned in the last build is that the original kayak was actually nailed together, not lashed.
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I’ve been working with a heavier artificial sinew than my usual and really like it so we bought a case to ship with our kits.
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#lashing #tying #primitiveskills #skinonframe #kayaking

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 3: steam bending t

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 3: steam bending the ribs. Total build time so far, about 16 1/2 hours. (Don’t miss that groovy music!)
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Here’s the new rib measuring formula in action! It takes about an hour to prep the ribs, 30 minutes to bend them, and usually another 30 minutes to double check the shaping and fix any mistakes before I peg some of the ribs into the gunwales.
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My steam bending set up is pretty basic: A wallpaper steamer feeds into a plywood box with a towel draped over it. You can make this more complicated if you want to but it’s not necessary.
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After doing some test bends to determine the best steaming interval for whatever wood I’m using, I load the box at one minute intervals until I get to a number of ribs that equals that amount of time. From there I can bend a rib every minute as long as I remember to put a rib in the box each time I take one out.
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The secret to easy steam bending is just starting with good bending wood in the first place. With freshly sawn white oak I rarely break any ribs and my students get similar results. Nothing beats green (not kiln dried) white oak, but there are other options as well.
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#bendingwood #steambending #woodworkingproject #traditionaltechniques #kayak

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse: steam bending te

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse: steam bending test ribs.
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I’m not adding today’s work to the build time because this wouldn’t normally be part of the process (unless you’re designing your own boat!). If you followed the last build you know that the giant leap of progress that I made on this design was ditching the fixed rib lengths I’ve been using for 15 years and figuring out a formula-based rib length system for this kayak (like I use on all my other boats).
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The advantages of formula-based rib measuring systems are that they are much easier to use, the shape ends up fairer, it gives you the freedom to move individual ribs a little bit if you need to, and it gives a lot more freedom to easily scale the kayak to a variety of different sizes.
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The problem is that on this kayak I changed the rib spacing and the scale of the kayak, which sent the new rib measuring system into total disarray.
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Trying to figure this stuff out can be pretty tricky. The basic idea is to create the boat shape that you’re looking for and then subtract the length of the ribs from the width of the boat at that mortise location, and then look at what’s left over and see if you can identify a mathematical relationship thats simple enough to turn into a measuring system. It’s OK to have a few weird random adjustments in a formula but when you start loading it up with all kinds of bizarre arbitrary measurements at some point it gets too cumbersome to teach or use. It’s not uncommon for me to go through 10 or more sets of test ribs when I’m figuring out a new design.
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Today was pretty frustrating and it seemed at one point like I wasn’t going to be able to make the formula work at this rib spacing, but by the end of the day I figured out a reasonably elegant measuring system that I think is going to work. We’ll find out when we bend in the actual ribs tomorrow!
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#steambending #prototyping #boatdesign #kayakdesign #skinonframe #boatbuilder #woodworking #kayak #systemdesign

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 2: assembling the

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 2: assembling the deck, total build time so far, about 14 hours.
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There’s something extremely satisfying about fitting the deck beams. Over the years I developed a super efficient system that allows first time builders make these mortise and tenon joints quickly and accurately. They don’t need to be perfect and it’s actually pretty easy to fix any fitting issues by carefully sliding a saw between the gunwale and the tenon shoulder. (Just don’t cut off the tenon!)
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Tip: I always make my tenons a 1/16th shorter than the mortise depth, rather than making them long and trimming them flush. Not only does this make the deck beams easier to install but it prevents flush cut tenons from pushing visibly into the skin as it tightens and compresses the frame.
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After the tenons are pegged with small dowels, I peg the deck beam diagonally with a larger dowel. Traditionally these would’ve been lashings on a West Greenland Kayak, but I use the East Greenland method because I think it’s faster, easier, and stronger.
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After trimming the dowels I fit the boards that will be the stems to the ends of the gunwales and then flatten the tops of the gunwales with a block plane. The curls and scraps go into the wood stove.
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#greenlandkayaking #mycapefalconbuild #skinonframe #woodworking #woodworkingtips #kayakbuilding #kayaking

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 1: Setting up the

West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 1: Setting up the gunwales and making the deck beams. Total build time so far, about 11 hrs. (Prepping the gunwales and making the coaming not shown) FYI there’s music.
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I think I’m gonna time lapse this one just to keep things interesting. Build times listed represent actual woodworking time not the time I spend staring and fretting, which is most of what I do when designing a new boat. I can usually complete these tasks about twice as fast as students who have to take the time to watch the instructions. So for example, having started at 8am, we would usually reach this point at about 1pm back when I used to teach in person.
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After my last kayak developed a weight problem, I put our postal scale in the workshop and I’m going to be tracking every ounce that goes into this one. Having added 3 ribs, 1 deck beam and scaling this up 2% I doubt I’m come in much less than 30, but hopefully this will tame some of my crazier modification impulses.
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#woodworking #kayakbuilding #greenlandkayaking #skinonframe #mycapefalconbuild

Since we are building Greenland kayaks right now I

Since we are building Greenland kayaks right now I want to share some actual pictures from Greenland.
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A couple years ago I was contacted by Max, the schoolmaster in the tiny East Greenlandic village of Tiilerilaaq (population about 100), who wanted to revive the local kayak building tradition. All of our instruction materials are free to native arctic people, but actually getting them to a place where Internet speeds are only slightly faster than two cans connected by a string was another story. It cost $75 just to send a thumb drive!
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Over the years we’ve developed a routine where we pack as many supplies as possible into a 25 kg flat rate box, and then a few weeks later the FedEx helicopter shows up, drops off the package, and Max literally drags it back to the school on a sled. Slowly, they are accumulating dry suits, tuiliks, reference books, and building supplies, but due to the limited shipping many materials are still scrounged and tools are improvised.
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So far Max has built an F1 and an East Greenlandic Kayak. The children start paddling the F1 for comfort and safety, and then transition towards the more challenging East Greenlandic design.
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Right now they are the only qajaq club in East Greenland and this year they became the first East Greenlanders to attend the kayak championships in Nuuk, where paddlers compete in a variety of traditional rolling and paddling skills. The president of the Greenland Qajaq Federation along with another highly skilled paddler from Sisimiut even visited the village this year.
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I’m sure they could’ve figured all this out on their own but it’s been a privilege to be a small part of that. It’s cool to see the kids building and kayaks on the water.
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Max is pictured in the second to last photo along with Kamilla @shadesofsnow who lived in Tiilerilaaq for a time. The photo of the village is from her excellent blog:
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http://shadesofsnow.com/tourism-to-a-settlement-and-the-future-of-tiilerilaaq-a-reflection/
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That’s not a clickable link but if you copy it you can read and see more photos from the village and read about the complex issues it faces.
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#greenlandkayaking #qajaq #qajaqbuilding #traditionalboat #kayak

We start again. For the next iteration of this kay

We start again. For the next iteration of this kayak I’m going to focus on improving the frame, expanding the size ranges, proofing the new rib measuring formula, and dialing in the new fitting system. I’m also going to bump the sheer a little higher on the ends to get a bit closer to the original.
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I’m starting with a 2% scale up because I think that would be a better size for our middle size on this kayak. This will give me a kayak that is 16‘8“ long and 20 1/2 inches wide, which is still well within the historic size range and is a better starting point to scale up or down for larger or smaller paddlers.
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I’m reducing the rib spacing by 15% which isn’t necessary at this size but will help to prevent hull collapse in the larger sizes and significantly extend the lifespan of the frame.
This means a change in deck beam locations, however, to avoid the two being stacked on top of each other and potentially creating a weak spot. Again, not an issue in the standard version but needed for the low volume version with less tall gunwales.
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I’m giving myself a slightly freer hand with the design on this one, but I still want to keep things within the historic range so I spent an entire day with Harvey Golden‘s book Kayaks of Greenland, trying to really fix in my mind the key elements of kayaks from this time period.
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Finally, as always I spent quite a bit of time trying to get all the deck beam, rib, and form locations on even inch spacing just to make the layout as easy as possible for myself and my students. Easy measuring, simple tools, and common lumber sizes are all important to me when I’m making a plan set.
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#boatbuilding #boatbuildinginstruction #kayakbuild #woodworking #buildprep #boatdesign

Just a couple more pictures of the recent Greenlan

Just a couple more pictures of the recent Greenland Kayak build. I used rare earth pigment directly in the coating this time and really like the color. It’s a lot harder to get a nice finish with rare earth pigment than with acid dye, and the colors are limited, but if you manage to get it on there without making a streaky mess the reward is a finish that will look better as it ages.
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Finished boat here is 32 lbs which appalling for a kayak that normally weighs 27. I can blame 2 lbs of that on the skeg install, and a pound on the extra coating and extra rib I added, but the rest, lets just say I got carried away with some modifications….
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#greenlandkayak #kayak #skinonframekayak #kayakdesign #traditionalboat #builtbyhand #handcrafted #boatproject

How significant is slot drag from a skeg box or da

How significant is slot drag from a skeg box or daggerboard trunk?
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In the first video clip my drop skeg box is uncovered but the skeg is not deployed, and I’m really cranking to stay on top of this tiny boat wake.
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In the second video clip I’ve put a strip of tape over the skeg slot and I can’t even ride a similarly sized wake because I just keep sliding out in front of it barely paddling at all.
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The difference in drag from the skeg slot is like night and day, especially at higher rates of speed. I’m not saying that skegs aren’t useful in certain conditions, but if I’m not in those conditions I’m keeping mine covered!
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#paddling #kayaking #seakayak #kayakskeg #kayakdesign #boatbuilder

So just to recap, the kayak pictured here is a Wes

So just to recap, the kayak pictured here is a West Greenland hunting kayak replica that I’ve been building with students for about 12 years. Over that time it has slowly evolved, so I wanted to build a new one as close to the historic lines as possible to check for negative design creep and to potentially incorporate some improvements. The sheer line is a bit less than the original but I’m very confident that the underwater shape is nearly identical with the exception of 1/4 inch more tail rocker that I added with the understanding that I could compensate for that with the drop skeg that I also added. The paddler position is moved forward 1 inch, the entire kayak is a bit flatter, and the chines are spread wider.
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What I hoped to gain from all this was a little more maneuverability and a little more stability with selectable tracking for certain wind and wave conditions.
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In reality what I ended up with is a sluggish kayak that is no more stable, doesn’t turn any better but tracks worse. Simply put, it’s a bit worse kayak than the version that I currently teach and build.
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However, I left myself some wiggle room to back out of those changes, so with a bit of savage carpentry to move the paddler position back and a strip of tape over the skeg slot I was mostly back to the decent performance of my existing version.
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While I didn’t gain any performance with the hull shape (yet) that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some massive gains on this build:
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I figured out a rib length formula that will let me effortlessly scale my existing plans into a much wider range of sizes. I dialed in the skeg installation for people who desire a drop skeg. I figured out a new backrest and foot brace system that literally DOUBLED my comfort in the boat, changing it from some thing that I could normally just paddle for a few hours to some thing that I could paddle all day long. I’m obsessed with kayak fit and comfort and even I was surprised by the magnitude of the improvement. I will add these improvements to the building course within one month.
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So that’s it for now. Tomorrow I start working on the next iteration.
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#greenlandkayaking #qajaq #greenlandrolling #skinonframe

I want to take a quick break from the Greenland ka

Took the new boat down to the water for a quick p

Took the new boat down to the water for a quick paddle and a couple rolls. As usual there’s lots of positive and lots of negative things to talk about here but I’m not gonna get too far into that until I get out on the water a few more times. The thing I can judge immediately though is the rolling performance:
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Basically it’s identically stable and rolls about the same as my previous, less historically-accurate version of this same kayak. The bottom shape on this is a bit flatter and shallower and the chines are spread a little wider which should add a bit more stability and ‘pop’ at the finish of the roll. I think I can feel that but it’s not a meaningful difference, which doesn’t surprise me because the changes themselves weren’t very big.
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It’s definitely possible to produce an even better Greenland rolling kayak, but this is usually about where I stop because the things you would do to make it roll even better start to seriously detract from the general paddling performance.
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At the end here I’m demonstrating the operation of the skeg while trying very hard not to get river water in my nose! The water here is actually a lot cleaner than most people think it is but it’s still in the middle of a large city.
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#greenlandkayak #greenlandkayaking #greenlandrolling #qajaq #paddling #traditionalboat #skinonframekayak #handbuilt #kayaking #newboat

So before I talk about the skeg on this Greenland

So before I talk about the skeg on this Greenland kayak I just want be clear that I’m not a big fan of skegs in the first place. In some kayaks a skeg can help with tracking in certain conditions, but they also add significant weight, drag, build time, and cost, not to mention ruining your rear cargo area. My modern kayak designs don’t need them, (The F1 doesn’t weathercock at all in a 40 mph crosswind) and for the Greenland kayaks, I just try to find historic examples that are likely to have less weathercocking and then live with what’s left over.
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So why tackle this project? Well mostly just because I like to double-check my own thinking anytime I have strong opinions on something. How much time, money, weight, and drag would this really add and are the performance benefits worth it?
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My ulterior motive, however, has to do with kayak sailing. As I ramp up to start work again on my sail system I’m taking a hard look at rudders and skegs because they add a LOT of safety by letting you turn the kayak down wind and take your hand off the paddle to deal with an out-of-control sailing situation.
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The installation here is pretty obvious and straightforward, although just like everything I do for the first time it took quite a bit of head scratching to get all the details right. This added 10 hours to this build but the next one will only add about 3 extra hours. I’ll probably put together a mini plan set at some point and sell it for a few bucks on my website just so anyone who wants to do this can skip figuring all that out for themselves. Let me know if something like that would interest you so I can decide if it’s worth putting together instructions?
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Something to keep in mind is that unlike everything else I do here, this was a precision installation and that’s 100% necessary because if something like this fails when you’re out paddling far away from shore in cold rough water it could put you in a life-threatening situation.
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That’s it for now, I’ll let you know how it performs.
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#greenlandkayak #seakayak #skeg #skinonframekayak #boatbuilding #kayakbuilding #kayaking

Skin on frame kayak building is surprisingly easy

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Brian Schulz
brian@capefalconkayaks.com
Call or text: 503 354 4939

4935 NE 11th Avenue
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