Skin-on-frame Kayaks

It has been over fifteen years ago that I  did my first kayak camping trip on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  I went to the Broken Islands group,  met several other groups of kayakers and spent a few days paddling and camping around the many islets of the sound.  I was hooked.

Having grown up doing canoe trips in Manitoba and Ontario,  I consider myself  good at paddling.  Sea kayaking though is quite  different with many other skills and factors to consider such as tides, tidal currents,  ocean swells,  crashing surf,  fog,  very cold water  and weather that can turn quickly.  It is also advisable to learn and practice a wet exit and re-entry (getting back into your kayak if it tips and fills with water) as well as wearing a wet or dry suit.  

I had rented a typical fibreglass kayak for that first trip.  I then considered buying one.  The better, lighter ones made of kevlar, were quite expensive, up to and above $4000 at the time.  On the way to work one early morning, I saw a kayak on the roof of a parked car that was striking in its design and shape.  I pulled over to take a closer look. It had a split bow and the cockpit was two thirds back from the front. It was a nylon skin stretched over a wooden frame. I later learned that this was a baidarka,  a typical skin-on-frame kayak from the Aleutian islands of Alaska.

Then on Granville Island in Vancouver, I came across the (now defunct) Brewery Creek Small Boat Shop, a workshop - kayak building school run by Robert Morris.  For half the price of a new kayak,  I could build one that would be unique to my needs.  I signed up and spent a week with Robert building a baidarka with enough volume to go touring.   It was a great experience learning how to build a kayak using mostly hand tools, steaming and bending ribs, making a cockpit rim and then sewing on a nylon 'skin'.  Not only was it very light, it looked great and, I was told,  performed really well on various conditions of the ocean.    It was early October by the time I finished it,  not the greatest time to try it out on a kayak trip in the Pacific Northwest.  I had two weeks vacation,  so I bought a kayaking guide book,  threw it on the roof of my car and drove for a couple of days down to Baja California for a few solo excursions.  My Aleutian baidarka was baptized in the warm turquoise waters of the Sea of Cortes. 

Sure enough, the kayak performed great,  especially when loaded with gear. It is quite light, around 35 lbs when empty, despite it's 19 foot length.  That makes it easy to carry on and off the car racks.  Unlike conventional kayaks, there are no sealed bulk heads, just one big hole.  I put in two hatches so I could stick my hand inside to drag my gear forward or backward from the cockpit where I put everything in.  This takes a bit longer to load and unload but that's OK.

When one builds a traditional skin-on-frame kayak, it is difficult to not also get into the history and anthropology of Northern peoples who built these amazing boats.   Over thousands of years,  their designs evolved to what suited them best for their water environment and hunting, be it seal, caribou, sea-otters or fish. The modern day kayak is loosely based on the Greenland kayak.  However, there is a wide variety of styles and shapes ranging from the Bering Sea to the central Canadian Arctic to the the two coastlines of Greenland.

The only real difference between a  new skin-on-frame kayak from a

true  traditional one is that a polyurethane coated nylon is used instead of 

seal skin. 

Back in Vancouver those first few years, I paddled several times with Robert and met some of his friends with their skin-on-frame boats.  He also turned me on to SSTIKS, or the South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium, held each June in Washington State.  I went for two years in a row and learned a lot about these boats.  Harvey Golden, a traditional kayak scholar who has made dozens of replicas from all over the arctic, had several of his boats that we tried paddling.  It's there that I also met  fellow Vancouverite Erik Lyon, an avid kayak and boat builder who has been a good friend ever since.

A few of Harvey Golden's Greenland kayak replicas.

Erik paddling Harvey's  Baffin island replica (over 20 feet long)

Various deck lines with bone or antlers.

Lashed ribs and stringers of a baidarka.

My baidarka was essentially a touring kayak.  Most people just paddling for a couple of hours had Greenland kayaks, much sleeker and perfect for rolling, another interesting  aspect of kayaking that is particularly suited to these narrow boats.  I decided to build one using Robert Morris' book on skin-on-frame boats as well as another excellent book on the construction of Greenland kayaks by Chris Cunningham.  It took me a few months because I started at my sister's in Kelowna and finished at a few friend's garages in Vancouver.  I was quite happy with the result.  It  was a little tippy at first as I built it for rolling and it has a low profile in the water.  I quickly got used to padding it though and it has been my day paddling 'yak ever since.

There's something  striking about seeing the finished frame...
 almost a shame to then cover it with a skin. 

Over the years,  I have done many kayak trips along the east and west coast of Vancouver island as well as the Central coast.  People always ask me questions when they see my baidarka.  Is it fibreglass? made out of wood?  Why is the bow like that? I don't mind answering even if I have repeated the story many times,  as its always great to get people interested in these kayaks.  Erik had made several different kinds of kayaks when he had time and facilities as an art student.  I fixed and re-skinned one of his baidarkas that was in rough shape and have since been using it as an extra kayak for anyone interested in touring with me.

Baidarka frame and, below, with a new skin. 

Erik's Hooper Bay (Alaska) kayak. Almost as much volume as a canoe. 
Often using a single blade paddle.  Below, an improvised Alaskan type 
touring kayak.

Paddling Robert Morris' Netsilingmeot  kayak (a boat used to hunt 

caribou while they swam across rivers in the central Canadian Arctic)

Skin-on-frame enthusiasts Mike and Lincoln.

On a trip to Johnstone Straight, we saw an original George Dyson 3 hole 

baidarka on Hanson Island.  Dyson is credited for the revival of baidarkas 

with his excellent book that explains its history as well as his  many years 

making variations of them mostly using aluminum tubing.

My friend Mara went down to Corey Freeman's baidarka school in Anacortes, WA and built

herself a kayak.  I had picked up a used George Dyson baidarka as well  that I altered and 

and put on a new skin there.

Although I only had this kayak for a few years, it was very sleek 
and fast.You can read its story on a previous blog entry from several 
years ago.

http://lobodelmar.blogspot.com/2009/09/summer-project-baidarka.html

The "Eskimo roll"  as it's sometimes still called,  is a good skill to possess.

Catching fish from a kayak is always exciting. 

Erik's ultra sleek Greenland kayak that Irene has been using and below, a roomier one 
he built with his wife for touring.

                       

I recently picked up an old Greenland kayak for real cheap (it had been out in the 
rain for the last 5 years).  I took off the old, moldy skin, replaced a few deck 
beams and re-skinned it.  I use it as an extra kayak to go out paddling with friends. 

                         

Two of Corey Freeman's "Strider" kayaks that he designed for easy 
maneuverability,surfing waves and with quite a bit of volume for touring.   

I finally took the old and worn skin off my Greenland kayak after thirteen plus years.  I was pleased how well the gunnels and ribs and held up.  Not surprising really as its made mostly with yellow cedar,  one of the better rot resistant woods one can use to build boats. There were patches of rot however in the bow and stern plates, luckily not too deep.  Water always gets into my Greenland kayak because it has such a low profile and it usually comes in when I am getting out of my boat on the beach even  with small waves.  Storing it upside down on the racks inevitably  gets some moisture trapped at the bow and stern.  I scraped the soft wood off with a knife, made sure it dried, then applied  fibreglass bondo to patch it up.  Should last another 10+ years.  I then covered the entire frame with tung oil,  then sewed on a new ballistic nylon skin.  

There are various ways one can add colour to your finished skin-on-frame kayak.  You can use dyes or add powdered pigment to the poly-urethane. I have always used watered-down acrylic paint. It's important to make sure the paint is very diluted otherwise the acrylic can block the fabric which, after, needs to be coated and penetrated with poly-urethane to waterproof your skin.  I usually paint on three washes to build up the colour, allowing it to dry each coat.  This time, I painted my kayak a lighter sienna with some gradation of reds, yellow and mauve.  I like the change from the darker brown colour I had before.  I added some new leather deck lines and used the same caribou antlers I had before.  As well, I put  some oak strips on the keel at the front and aft of the boat.  This is where you get the most wear and tear on the skin.  In the past,  I had often just used duct tape on the forward and aft keel.  The time and effort to make and glue on wooden rub strips makes it look better.