The Greenland Kayak Building Process Illustrated This page illustrates the basic steps in building a Greenland kayak.
Our builders are Tony Mullins, to the left and Glen Howard to the right. These pictures are from a class hosted by California Canoe and Kayak at Jack London Square in Oakland. Building a Greenland kayak takes about nine full days once you have all the materials. http://www.wolfgangbrinck.com/
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Day 1
Day 1 starts with an asessment of what sort of boat you want, how wide, how long, how heavy, how stable, how fast. And we talk about what you want to use it for. Then we cut the gunwales to length, 16 feet long for a 17 foot boat.
Once we have arranged the gunwale boards so that their grain matches, we nail them face to face so they can be marked as a pair. Among other things, we mark the bow and the stern. In this case, we have also doweled risers to the stern. The risers give the gunwales some upsweep at the ends to stop waves from coming over the deck in the finished boat.
We cut rib mortises on the underside of the gunwales.
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Day 2
On day two, with all the marking on the gunwales done and the rib mortises cut, we separate the gunwales and spread them to define the shape of the deck and then start installing deck beams.
We cut the ends of the gunwales at an angle.
We plane the ends of the gunwales so they have good contact once we spread the gunwales.
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Now we spread the gunwales. This defines the basic shape of the deck as viewed from above. The central spreader sets the maximum width of the boat. The lashings near the bow and stern create the familiar pinched in shape of the ends of Greenland kayaks.
With the shape of the deck established, we dowel the ends of the gunwales to lock them firmly in place. Dowels are just slighly larger than the holes they go into so they are firmly locked in place. No glue is used. 4
When all the dowels are in place, we saw the ends flush with the surface of the gunwales.
Deckbeams are cut and set into the deck and temporarily nailed in place. At this point the angle of the gunwales with respect to the vertical is not yet set. We set the final angle by tightening up the windlasses made of rope and scrap lumber. This increases the angle and at the same time brings up the ends of the boat.
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When the angle of the gunwales is set, we fix it in place by pulling nails that hold in the deck beams and drill holes to accept the dowels that replace the nails.
Dowels are hammered into place, two on each end of each deck beam.
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Now is a good time for the builders to show off their decks.
And we can try to visualize the view from the cockpit.
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Day 3
After all the deckbeams are pegged to the gunwales we also lash them to the gunwales so they won't pull apart under the stresses of paddling.
We install the keelson with three spacers to establish the depth of the boat. The boat is roughly two inches deeper in the front than in the back. Also note the rocker or curvature in the keelson.
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Day 4
We add a stemboard to the front of the boat to support the keelson in the bow area and to provide a transition between the deck and the keelson.
We do the same in the stern of the boat. The board is attached to the gunwales with three sets of lashings and to the keelson with dowels.
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The boat is now set for ribs. At this point we also make final adjustments to the curvature of the keelson.
We lay out the rib blanks on the boat and mark them for width. After we steam them, we press them into the boat and clamp them to the gunwales where they can cool down and the shape can set after which we can trim them to length and insert them in their mortises.
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Day 5
All the ribs are in place in their mortises. Now we add the hull stringers, the longitudinal pieces of wood that define the outside bottom edge of the Greenland kayak. We clamp them to the ribs and adjust their position to get them ready for lashing.
Tony is drilling lashing holes in the keelson. Both the keelson and the chine stringers are drilled and then lashed to the ribs. This holds the keelson and stringers in place on the ribs.
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Day 6
We have added the masik, the curved deck beam behind the knee brace. The masik supports the front of the cockpit coaming.
We have added a simple pulley system consisting of two rings and a rope. This pulley lets us pull floatation bags into the hull of the boat once the skin is in place. This picture also shows the lashings that hold the ribs to the keelson and the stringers.
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At this point the frame is finished and Glen does a final fitting to make sure that everything is where it should be. Feet are on the foot brace and the knee brace is just behind the knee caps. The back brace is set several inches behind Glen's back to allow for a bigger cockpit. This makes getting in and out of the boat easier and allows the cockpit to be fit with a commercial spray skirt. Glen will later add a back band to support his back.
When the frame is done, we varnish or oil it before putting on our skin.
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Day 7
Before putting on the skin, Glen tries out his boat one more time in dry dock, low brace, leaning on the rail.
And the view from the back, paddling into the early morning sun.
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And now down to business. Step 1 in the skinning process is to drape the nylon fabric over the frame.
Then we sew around one end to hook the fabric into place.
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After one end is sewn, we stretch the fabric lengthwise, then sew the other end. Here Tony is doing the stretching on his boat. His assistant, not visible here is holding on to the other end of the boat while Tony stretches for all he's got.
And here the skin is in place. At this point, it is just sewed at the bow and stern. Next we flip the boat over and trim off excess fabric and start sewing a seam down the middle of the deck.
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The seam is done in two parts. First the two flaps of skin are sewn face to face, then rolled over and sewn down on the deck with a curved needle as shown in this picture.
Glen is finishing up the second seam on the bow of his boat.
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And this is how the boat looks with skin.
Once the deck seam is done we center the coaming on the cockpit and clamp it in place so we can sew it to the skin.
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And the view of the interior of the boat with the skin on.
And Tony finishes the last of his sewing by lamp light. 19
After all the sewing is done, we hose down the skin with water and then let it dry after which it becomes drum tight.
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Day 8 On day 8 we paint the skin, put on deck straps and toggles as well as keel strips.
Here we are mixing up the two part urethane which waterproofs the skin and fills in the weave to give the boat a smooth finish.
Glen varnishing and sporting proper protective gear.
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Tony in addition to mask and gloves also sports a hat to completely conceal his identity.
We are fitting the boat for deck straps which among other things can be used to hold a spare paddle. 22
Deck straps and toggles on a Greenland kayak are traditionally arranged so that the hunter can shove his paddle under the toggles and use it as an outrigger to steady the boat while he tends to his game.
And we add a keelstrip at both ends of the boat to protect the skin from abrasion. The keelstrip is a piece of hardwood that is bent into place and then pegged to the frame of the boat with wooden pegs. 23
Day 9 On day 9 we catch up, work on our paddles and try out the boats.
Glen's new boat in its upright position presenting its classic Greenland profile with its raked bow and gracefully arching sheer line.
We must also try the boat out in the sideways position
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.. and in the most stable upside down position.
.. from which we escape by the skin of our teeth.
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Beyond Day 9
Beyond day 9 the possibilities are limitless.
On a beautiful sunny morning, Tony shows off the Western Greenland look in kayak gear.
And Glen in slightly more conventional head gear.
And when paddling finally becomes too much, it's time to practice the traditional Greenland maneuver called "rafting up."
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