Saabi`s daily news: 2012

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We finally made it a priority and started building a Skin on frame 'Baidarka' kayak.
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'Building a kayak means more than you first imagine.This journey of creation will reflect your present and your future. When you bring a boat to life in the traditional fashion, you create stories just as the first kayakers did. Making your own kayak, You get a boat you can be proud of, a kayak you will love, and the knowledge and confidence to build one on your own.'

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Baidarka is the Russian name used for Aleutian style sea kayak. The ancient Unangan name is Iqyax. The word has its origins from early Russian settlers in Alaska. A prominent feature of a baidarka is its forked bow (bifurcated bow). Very lightweight and maneuverable, it was made out of seal skin sewed only by Aleut women, over a frame made strictly of drift wood (since no trees grow in the Aleutian Islands), bone and sinew.
It was treated as a living being by Aleut men ( it was taboo for a women to handle them)

Tom Yost http://yostwerks.com
has an excellent website with kayak designs and great information on building skin on frame kayaks

We did choose the relatively new Roldarka design from the website , but Tamas altered cross section #3 and #4 ( raising both 1") to gain more freeboard.
the roldarka
the roldarka offset

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Than we took the first step and went to the local lumber store to look for Western Red Cedar and Marine grade plywood

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We knew that we need to build the strongback first. This will support the frame during assembly.
We made a 16` long strongback.... bolted six 8` 2x4 together and two 8` 1x6 deckplate screwed on the top
the strongback

and the stations at each end to secure the first and last cross sections

The cross sections: install the sections
we used a pushpin to transfer the outline of the cross sections to the plywood

We used a jig saw to cut the outside of the cross sections with a fine wood cutting blade,than drilled the inside edges of the cross sections using the 3/4" drill bit to make smooth corners and provide starting points for the jig saw.

after cutting all the cross sections out we used our Dremel multimax to smooth the edges of the wood..

It was a great feeling to see all the 8 cross section

first time in my kayak :-)

we sealed the cross sections with 2 coats of spar urethane from Helmsman

and 2 coats of Tung oil to the stringers

Frame Construction the stringers
first we secured cross section #1 and #8 to the stations than attached the gunwales to the cross sections held in position with shock cords and electric cable tie. After is an easy task to slide the remaining cross sections and stringers into place.

WOW...it look like a kayak :-))

second time in my kayak

"While the origins of the unique Aleut craft, the baidarka, are lost in the mists of time, it was the Russian explorers and traders in the early 1600’s who called the boat by the name we use now – “baidarka”, or “little boat”. Russian and then European explorers who visited this part of the world observed and recorded the little boats and how they were used by the Aleuts and other coastal peoples. The Russians, in particular, recognized the extraordinary seaworthiness of the craft, and used it extensively in their harsh exploitation of the native peoples and the fur trade.

The baidarka was the sea-going equivalent of a sports car – fast, maneuverable, and admirably suited to hunting in rough conditions. The umiak, in contrast, was the equivalent of a dump truck or utility pickup truck – capacious, much slower, but suited to carrying a great many people or tons of cargo (though smaller versions were used for whale hunting).

native baidarkas were built of driftwood gathered along the beaches, and covered with sealskin or sea lion skins. The Aleuts, as did many of the other native peoples, designed and made specialized garments that covered the paddler and attached to the baidarka, helping to make man and boat into one sea creature, and thus helping to ensure their survival in one of the roughest seas in the world. (Such clothes, and the equipment used by the hunter in the baidarka, are another fascinating field of study).
Aleut baidarkas are generally classified by their number of “holes”, or cockpits – one, two or three holers. It wasn’t unusual, the explorers tell us, to find children riding in the bigger baidarkas under the skin covering and between the cockpits. The smaller boats generally ran from 16 to 19 feet long, and were often about 20 inches wide at their widest point.
These craft were also noteworthy for their bifid, or bifurcated bow, which is useful both to extend the length of the craft (thus making it faster for a given human horsepower) and to provide just enough built-in flotation to help the bow rise to the seas. Although the bifid bow was not unique to the Aleuts, they did develop their own specialized design suited to the waters in which they lived and hunted"
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figuring out the Bow.. it took us a few try..;-)))

The completed bifurcated bow

Lashing lashing a skin on frame kayak
to secure all the the pieces together we chose to go with lashing

we used the modern and virtually indestructible equivalent of seal gut – waxed nylon thread

Time to separate the frame from the strongback..

the cockpit floor floor

the foot-pegs

The Coaming coaming
The 2 coamings was cut from 1/2"marine grade plywood.

trying to smooth the coamings before gluing the two together .......... was a mistake ;-)))

I used a woodburner to make the fire owl...

legend of the fire owl

we used Titebond III glue and dowels to glue the two coaming together

sealed twice with urethane

and temporary clamped to cross section #4 and #5

just be sure......

was time to take a day off and get some Frozen Yogurt

The Skinning:

the best online resource for the skinning process is Corey Freedman's skin boat school website
we ordered the nylon and the goop from Corey's spirit line store ( quick and friendly service)