Links:

Traditional Indigenous Kayaks, Umiaks - Historical to present day

Traditional Kayaks - books by Harvey Golden

Full-Size Replica Kayaks and paddles built by Harvey Golden

Circum-Polar Kayak Types: An Illustration of What is (and Was)Where by Harvey Golden.

Data and Information on Kayak Replicas built by Harvey Golden

[Video] At Kodiak AK suipiaq alutiiq kayak design flexibility for speed

Narrated by Gail Ferris, while present at the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska.

Description of the flexible kayak / baidarka kodiak [a study] concerning the quick construction structure.

'We Are A Water People:' Unalaska Community Unites At Iqyax^ Launch

True North Boats - custom kayak builder

Kayaks at the Arctic Museum [Video]

Harvey Golden, an internationally recognized kayak expert, will discuss the history of the Inuit kayak and the amazing diversity of kayak styles developed by Inuit from Siberia to Greenland.

In stormy weather some of these umiaks and also some of those in Alaska employ weather cloths, 18 or 20 inches high above the gunwales, raised on short stanchions lashed to the hull frames. The ends of the stanchions are inserted in slits in the top of the weather cloth, and in fair weather the cloths are folded down inside the gunwale out of the way. Also in some of these Asiatic and Alaskan umiaks, inflated floats, of seal skin, are lashed to the gunwales to prevent capsizing in a heavy sea.

"If such nozzles from inflated boats were found elsewhere. One might add, well, is that an indicator if skin boats at one time? And the answer is not necessarily, because other hunters around the world, using very different types of boats, also use inflated seal skins for whaling. Most notably on the Northwest Coast, [Washington/Oregon] , they had harpoon hunting from bark canoes, cedar canoes, and they use very much the same technology in terms of toggling harpoon heads, long lines and attached to inflated sealskin floats. So this a thousand miles away from the nearest skin boat culture. So the context of where one finds these is an important aspect, also. These whaling technologies are so perfected".

"One technology, I think above all stands out the most to me, that was the most critical thing in letting humans live comfortably in the Arctic. And that was interestingly, the very smallest tool, needles. Fine needles in the technology of processing skins and working them to make durable, heavy clothing, enabled people to live up there [Arctic regions]. For boats, you needed very good needles in order to do waterproof seams on the skins. Not just any seam would do on a boat, you had to render the skin so it wouldn't soak up water or fall apart. There's many requirements to have, to get a boat covered with skin, to be viable. There's the typical method of sewing skins around a boat, involve a double seam. So they do one join, one stitch where they joined the skin together, and then another way they fold it over. So it's kind of double stitched, keeps the water out better. But another interesting thing about working with skin that people that work with fabric might not think about, is that when you sew with skin, with a needle, you're not, you don't need to go all the way through the skin. You can go part way into it, and then back out".

"The drawing shows that the lower needle is going into the skin and then coming back out without going all the way through it, like the upper needle. So with that type of quality needles and quality stitching, you can do a skin boat that's much more inherently waterproof than just blowing all the way through the skin with a needle, with a crude needle, with a heavier gauge thread. We certainly don't know what boats in the Arctic looked like 45,000 years ago, .. example, the oldest example of ivory ['scale'] models, which is 2,000 years ago. But we do know that long before European contact with Arctic peoples, there was a very rich, diverse forms of kayaks [as well as Umiaks] in the Arctic regions".

..With the gunwales faired, the remaining frames are then put in position and lashed to the gunwales and chines. An outside batten is run along each side and lashed by turns of sinew over the batten and around the side frames, with the lashings let into each member to prevent slipping and chafing. The batten is lashed at bow and stern in some umiaks, but in many it is stopped just short of coming home on the posts. Next, the short frames at bow and stern are put in place and the risers secured inside the side frames, then, with the thwarts fitted and lashed to the risers, and the ends of the gunwales are lashed together at bow and stern, the boat is ready to be covered. When ready to cover, the frame is stiffened by diagonal thong ties, each of which has one end secured by turns around the gunwale, with the other end passed through holes in the keelson and secured. These are commonly found in western umiaks; the small umiak has but one pair placed amidships.

When this umiak was examined, the skin cover was in such a condition that the number of hides used could not be determined, but it probably is comprised of three sea-lion skins sewn together. New skin covers are made by removing the hair and fat from the skins and then sewing them together by the method illustrated on page 186, to obtain proper[Pg 186] dimensions.

Green skins are generally preferred, since they stretch into shape better than partly or wholly cured ones. Once stretched to shape and cured, the cover can be readily removed and replaced, without resewing. In fitting a new skin cover the skins are first thoroughly soaked in seawater. The cover is then stretched over the frame and worked taut by lacings. It is wide enough to reach from gunwale to gunwale and a little down inside the boat on each side, and is laced to the rising batten with turns of rope spaced 3 to 5 inches apart amidships and closer together in the ends of the hull. At the headboards the cover is laced around the gunwales and through holes in the headboards, two independent lacings of two turns each being used on each side. At the extreme bow and stern the cover is laced to the gunwale lashings. Where the cover will not stretch smooth in fitting, gores appear to have been cut out and the skin resewn. After being laced, the cover is allowed to shrink until it becomes smooth and tight, then it is heavily oiled and the seams rubbed with tallow or blubber. This treatment is repeated at regular intervals. While the boat is in service care is taken to dry out the skin cover once a day, if possible.

See article for additional notes concerning skin boat hull technology