Tag: Baidarka
Visit to a Kayak Museum in Portland
I read about a supposedly gem of a kayak museum in Portland maybe 18 months ago. Hmmm… Skin on frame kayaks… A museum… Huge collection… Quirky hours… Hmmm….
After a little inter-web research, I found that the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum is the work of one man, Harvey Golden, and the collection is made up mostly of boats that he has hand built after surveying traditional native boats all over the world. I was in!
Mr. Golden uses the museum as a repository for his boat collection and as the home of his publishing house, White House Grocery Press. The museum is open to the public here and there as he is in the office and has set hours from 5-7 on Wednesdays. Knowing all that, I was almost vibrating to get a peek at his boats and paddles. I had stopped by the museum a couple of times when visiting Portland, but the timing was always off and I was never in town during the posted open time Wednesday afternoons. I was going going to be in The Rose City for a long holiday weekend and sent Mr. Golden an e-mail asking if he might, by chance, be around when I was in the city and to my great surprise, he got right back to me and agreed to let me stop by one Tuesday morning – I brought him a coffee when I showed up at the planned 10:00 on the dot.
His collection of boats, paddles, gear, accessories, and models is amazing – as are his books on the subject of kayaks. Here is the kicker though and why I am spending some time discussing a specific museum visit: he was amazingly generous with his time and spent over an hour and a half with me to explain the collection, bits & bobs, details, accessories, etc… I really, really appreciated it. His generosity of time is not something I see a lot of these days.
If you are into kayaks or boats in general, stop by the free museum and take a look at his books as well. I am about 70 pages into the super-detailed and annotated Kayaks of Alaska and want to build them ALL…
Film Friday – Baidarka (Skin on frame Aleut kayak) build movie
With the hip related bed rest, I have had some time to catch up on some film-making and finally finished this little slideshow film documenting the entire process of a 9-day father/son traditional kayak build that I blogged about this past summer. The next build will be either a small motorboat or a wood-strip cedar canoe.
Let me know if you have any questions about the video.
Building a Skin-On-Frame Kayak
On my very first trip to Seattle in 2003, I had a day off from work and happened to wonder into The Center for Wooden Boats in the South Lake Union area of the city. I loved it immediately and lingered around the boats and workshop for hours with a smile and a happy heart. At some point, a volunteer let me take out a kayak and paddle the lake. It was not like the plastic and fiberglass beasts that I had paddled or owned previously. It was light and flexible in the right spots, sleek, and fast. It was a skin-on-frame boat, called a Baidarka, that was based on a 4,000+ year old Aleut design. No nails, no glue, no screws. Just wood, nylon (modern replacement for walrus or seal skin…), and LOTS of knots.
I was smitten and just as happenstance, there was a baidarka building class going on that was finishing up under a pavilion on site. I talked to the instructor, Corey Friedman, asking all sorts of questions, until I think he wanted to drown me. Six years later as we were planning our move to the Emerald City, I vowed to take the kayak building class. Finances, life, and vacation available conspired against me until this year, thirteen years after seeing them for the first time (though I did read the Dyson book in college), the stars aligned and I was able to sign up for the class and take the time off. It also happened to coincide with my son’s summer visit, so I got to build an item on my bucket list AND spend serious quality time with my son.
We started on a cold Saturday morning with three ladies also building boats and 8.5 days later, I brought my hand built and custom sized boat home. The interim was spend learning a GREAT deal, tying 2000+ knots, bending frame ribs, listening to way too much zydeco music (instructor’s favorite), sewing, saying dirty words, removing stitches, resewing, loving the time spent with The Ruminator, and enjoying the ambiance of the Center for Wooden boats.
I have included a full photo documentation of my build as a pictures on my notes. I figure that the more people who document the process, the better chance this boat has of living on for future generations. Here is an additional documentation from another former student that was better at it than me.
