Dec 04, 2005
Boat maintenance and black helicopters.
Photos, videos and paddle blanks.

Dec 3, 2006 Some Thoughts on Kayak Design

Here's some thoughts on the topic of Kayak design by John Winters, E.O. Tuck and Leo Lazauskas. The thoughts are extracted from their website.

Leo Lazauskas - The University of Adelaide, Australia
John Winters - Redwing Designs, Canada
E. O. Tuck - The University of Adelaide, Australia
30 October 1997

"The monetary rewards of sea kayak and canoe design have never been sufficient to justify tank testing or any other objective and methodical method of hull form development. Designers have, therefore, relied upon subjective evaluations of boats to determine performance values. This is neither reliable nor consistent. Test paddlers carry with them an extraordinary amount of baggage including personal and aesthetic bias, moods swings, the inability to duplicate test protocols and the more obvious inability to quantify or even sense performance variations in any reliable manner. This and the absence of formal design training for most designers results in a wide range of hull forms and little consensus on what is good or bad. Almost every shape has its proponents and detractors."

My thoughts

Ok, what these guys seem to be saying is that they want standards for evaluating boats. About what you would expect from engineers. But they seem to dismiss all the things you can't easily measure but that nevertheless are big factors in why people choose one boat over another, like comfort, the cool factor, looks, rough water ability etc. If your only concern is to go fast on flat water, then these guys can help us out because they have a test tank that can measure the flat water performance of a kayak. If you want to do any kind of other paddling or you want to fish from your boat or impress your friends or carry a lot of gear, then these guys don't want to talk to you because these factors are susceptible to esthetic bias and mood swings.

Dec 3, 2006 More Curraghs

Good news. I found a web site where someone has scanned the part of James Hornell's book that deals with Irish curraghs. An expenditure of $630 is therefore not necessary. The website is Here

And here's some quotes re curraghs that Mr. Hornell has collected.

Hornell, the Curraghs of Ireland, pg 16-17 Early Reminiscences of the Great Isle of Aran, pp. 292-3.

Recently as 1853 we find C. H. Hartshornet stating that "the curach of Aran. . .is about eight feet long, with one square and one pointed end, capable of carrying three people". He adds: "Such is the dexterity with which it is usually managed, that it will land from ships in distress through the roughest breakers, and cross over to the main, when vessels of every other class are unserviceable." Incidentally we learn that the covering continued to be of cow-hide, for he mentions that the curraghs were covered with the same material, cow-hide, as the peculiar skin-sandals used by the islanders.

Back in the early twelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis had already described the use in this locality of quite small skin-covered curraghs. In a passage in his Topographia Hiberniae, III, 26, he relates the adventures of a ship's crew in the words of the men themselves.

Some sailors told me [says Giraldus] that having once been driven by a violent storm during Lent to the northern islands and the unexplored expanse of the Sea of Connaught, they lay for shelter off a small island. Soon after the storm abated they noticed a small skiff rowing towards them. It was narrow and oblong and made of wattled boughs, covered with the hides of beasts. In it were two men without any clothing except broad belts round their waists. They had long yellow hair, like the Irish, falling below their shoulders. Finding that the men were from some part of Connaught and could speak the Irish language, the sailors took them on board. They said that they had never before seen a ship built of timber.

From Hornell, the Curraghs of Ireland, pg 17 Synge, J. M., The Aran Island's, pp. 97-8. Dublin and London, 1907.

Synge writes: We set off. It was a four-oared curagh, and I was given the last seat so as to leave the stern for the man who was steering with an oar, worked at right angles to the others by an extra thole-pin in the stern gunnel. When we had gone about a hundred yards they ran up a bit of a sail in the bow and the pace became extraordinarily rapid. The shower had passed over and the wind had fallen, but large, magnificently brilliant waves were rolling down on us at right angles to our course. Every instant the steersman whirled us round with a sudden stroke of his oar, the prow reared up and then fell into the next furrow with a crash, throwing up masses of spray. As it did so, the stern in its turn was thrown up, and both the steersman, who let go his oar and clung with both hands to the gunnel, and myelf, were lifted high up above the sea. The wave passed, we regained our course and rowed violently for a few yards, when the same manoeuvre had to be repeated. As we worked out into the sound we began to meet another class of waves, that could be seen for some distance towering above the rest. When one of these came in sight, the first effort was to get beyond its reach. The steersman began crying out in Gaelic "Siubhal, siubhal" ("Run, run"), and sometimes, when the mass was gliding towards us with horrible speed, his voice rose to a shriek. Then the rowers themselves took up the cry, and the curagh seemed to leap and quiver with the frantic terror of a beast till the wave passed behind or fell with a crash besides the stern. It was in this racing with the waves that our chief danger lay. If the wave could be avoided, it was better to do so, but if it overtook us while we were trying to escape and caught us on the broadside, our destruction was certain. I could see the steersman quivering with the excitement of his task, for any error in his judgement would have swamped us. We had one narrow escape. A wave appeared high above the rest and there was the usual moment of intense exertion. It was of no use, and in an instant the wave seemed to behurling itself upon us. With a yell of rage the steersman struggled with his oar to bring our prow to meet it. He had almost succeeded, when there was a crash and rush of water round us. I felt as if I had been struck upon the back with knotted ropes. White foam gurgled round my knees and eyes. The curagh reared up, swaying and trembling for a moment, and then fell safely into the furrow.

This was our worst moment, though more than once, when several waves came so closely together that we had no time to regain control ofthe canoe between them, we had some dangerous work. Our lives depended upon the skill and courage of the men, as the life of the rider or swimmer is often in his own hands, and the excitement of the struggle was too great to allow time for fear.

I enjoyed the passage. Down in this shallow trough of canvas that bent and trembled with the motion of the men, I had a far more intimate feeling of the glory and the power of the waves than I have ever known in a steamer.

Nov 22, 2006 Curraghs

I got it in my mind to build a curragh. Doesn't seem too complicated and is an indigenous sort of skin boat not from the Arctic. I am lacking dimensions however. James Hornell wrote a book on curraghs and coracles and would be the place to look. However, used copies are going for $630, a bit more than what I'm willing to pay for a boat book. So I will probably wing it.

What really got me going on curraghs is a kind of a woven stick construction for the hull, evident in the picture above. This sort of construction makes for a lumpy hull that isn't necessarily the most streamlined but these are after all cargo boats traveling at low speeds where hull shape isn't overly critical. I like the idea of using sticks as is and not having to shave them down into smooth stringers like those on kayaks.

Some other things I like about currags are that they are portable, that is they can be carried to and from the water by their crew and I like the fact that when three men carry a curragh, the effect is one of a large black beetle.

Curraghs apparently were used in rough water and have ends that come up to let them be launched in moderate surf.

Some people in Ireland at the Museum of Country Life have done a reconstruction. Their photo documentation of the project is here. This boat is a bit larger than what I had in mind building.

It is set up for 4 people at the oars and another person steering.

And as is common in Christian countries, the boat is blessed by the priest.

Nov 22, 2006 Boat Launchings in 19th Century Polynesia

Speaking of boat launchings, I ran across the following in Haddon and Hornell's book, The Canoes of Oceania page 329 of volume 1. Haddon and Hornell are quoting historical accounts. The boat launching procedures described are no longer being practiced.

"The canoe in question is a large one and typically takes two to three years to build but may take as long as seven. The completion of every stage of the construction is marked with a feast and sometimes the killing of men to accompany the feast. When the vessel was to be launched, a man [sometimes several men] would be killed to serve as a roller over which to slide it into the water."

"With regard to the human sacrifice associated with the launching ceremonies, Wilkes records that when Tanoa launched a canoe 10 or more men were slaughtered on the deck in order that it might be washed with human blood. Wall also says: A new canoe was launched over men’s bodies that mana might enter into it and make it swift and safe, but I can find no trace of living men ever having been used for this purpose; they were clubbed first. Certain small islands and districts enjoyed by hereditary right the doubtful honour of supplying the victims for these occasions, as for instance the island of Lauthala for the launching of the vessels of the Thakaundrove chiefs."

Nov 22, 2006 New Greenland Kayak Book by Harvey Golden

Harvey Golden has published a new book on Greenland kayaks. It is appropriately entitled, Kayaks of Greenland. This has got to be the fattest kayak book in or out of print. If you have any interest in Greenland kayaks, buy the book. It has drawings as well as descriptions of dozens of kayaks. Harvey has also made replicas of a number of these boats and describes how they paddle. You can buy the book here.