BOAT

[ceph]

I went to the Wooden Boat festival today and ran across an advertisement for a class in which you build an Aleut baidarka--with a lashed cedar frame and resin-impregnated canvas skin, no glue nor metal fastenings. Several examples of the finished product were on display (including one with squid tentacles painted on it omg.) I immediately conceived

Comments

[derakon]

Would you do anything with the boat having made it, beyond admiring the squid decals? How would you store it?

If you can answer those satisfactorily, then I say go for it.

[ceph]

Heh, excellent points. I was actually pricing kayaks online just a couple of weeks ago--there's a lot of good kayaking around here, and UW rents out kayak storage. The baidarka class costs about twice as much as a midrange conventional kayak.

Now, there is probably a valid question as to whether a kayak/baidarka is really worth my while without a car, since I'd mainly be restricted to using it in and around Lake Union. And if I were ever called upon to store it in my apartment, I might be hard-pressed to manage that. I also wonder how durable/repairable such a craft is compared to a conventional kayak.

Perhaps I'll prepay for some kayak rentals at Agua Verde and see how often I actually get out on the lake.

[jibb]

If you're renting from Agua Verde and want a paddling partner, I'd be happy to go out on the lake at some point.

[jibb]

I've been pondering a baidarka, but it's never quite seemed practical.

A handful of years ago, my father was looking into kayak building and accumulated a pile of books on both frame-and-skin and stitch-and-glue plywood kayaks. It never got further than building some stitch-and-glue models out of really thin plywood, but I could see if you could borrow those books if you're interested.

(Have you heard of George Dyson's 48-foot, 6-hatch, record-setting baidarka, the Mount Fairweather?)