West Greenland Replica Kayak | Cape Falcon Kayak

Video: Doing questionable things in my Greenland kayak a few weeks ago

January 2022July 2023Leave a comment

Grinding through various not fun business tasks for the next couple days, waiting for the oil to dry on the LPB frame, still waiting for wind to test the new sail setup. Here’s some random footage of me doing questionable things in my Greenland kayak from a couple weeks ago. No music on this...

Video: New Greenland kayak on the water, Part 2

December 2021September 2022Leave a comment

Part two of yesterday’s video, FYI, there’s music here. The new West Greenland kayak is a decent roller, not amazing but probably as good as you can get without really cutting into the paddling performance. Pretty easy to scale it down further for a dedicated rolling machine, but personally the trade-off isn’t worth it...

Video: More video of our new Greenland Kayak design on the water

December 2021September 2022Leave a comment

More video of our new West Greenland Kayak design on the water. Based on the rifle hunting kayaks of the early 20th century, this kayak has classic lines and is a bit more user friendly than those from other times and places in Greenland. The scalability on this new version is a game changer....

We have officially achieved escape velocity, the new West Greenland Kayak plan is live

December 2021September 2022Leave a comment

We have officially achieved escape velocity, the new West Greenland Kayak plan is live. I’m still not sure exactly how this whole thing snowballed from: I should probably build a new Greenland kayak to talk about in the upcoming explainer video, to I think I could make this design a little bit better, to...

Finally found some time to take the new Greenland kayak out on the water for a couple of minutes

December 2021September 2022Leave a comment

Finally found some time to take the new Greenland Kayak out on the water for a couple of minutes. My first impression is that I LOVE the fit. My earlier version of this kayak was surprisingly comfortable for a true Greenland shape, but this one is even better. It’s still a very snug low-volume...

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build Timelapse 9: Adding deck lines and seating

November 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build Timelapse 9: adding deck lines and seating. Total build time on this kayak, about 44 hours. Rigging the deck lines is always my least favorite part of the kayak building process. I pull 3/8” wide English bridle leather straps through progressively smaller holes to stretch and round them, and then...

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 8: Coating the kayak

November 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 8: Coating the kayak. Build time so far, about 40 hours. I’ve recently started experimenting with mixing rare earth pigment directly into the two-part polyurethane. The advantage to this is that the finish is far more colorfast and UV resistant than using acid dye to color the fabric,...

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 7: Skinning the kayak

November 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 7: Skinning the kayak. Build time so far, about 32 hours....

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 6: Adding foredeck stringers

November 2021July 2023Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build Time Lapse 6: Adding foredeck stringers, cleaning up and oiling the frame. Total build time so far, about 28 hours. The time lapse is back, don’t miss the music here! Scroll back to the October 16 post to see the beginning of this series. It’s pretty obvious what’s happening in...

Video: Just a couple of slow-mo rolls in the new wrapped frame

November 2021July 2023Leave a comment

Just a couple of slow-mo rolls in the new wrapped frame. The first one is just to prove a point that you don’t need strength or flexibility to roll. I start upright and finish upright, and I’m barely touching the paddle. Boat selection doesn’t matter much either. Easy rolls are mostly about technique and...

West Greenland Kayak Build, Frame number 3: Second water test

November 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build, Frame number 3, second water test. After pulling a quarter inch of rocker out of the stern, we wrapped the frame in black plastic and then wrapped it again with the last of my clear plastic which actually ended up adding so much tension that it distorted the frame, but...

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build, frame number 3: First water test

November 2021July 2023Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build, Frame number 3, first water test. (there’s music on this one). I’m not sure I actually got a good sense of the kayak this time out. We ran out of the clear shrink wrap and so this time I bought black wrap to try to reduce the number of distracting...

Video: West Greenland Kayak build, Frame number 3: Steam bending the ribs

November 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak build, Frame number 3, steam bending the ribs. Bending day ended up being a lot more work than I planned. I started out with a quick test bend of 8 ribs just to make sure the rib measuring formula still worked with with the new deck shape. Then I cut up...

West Greenland Kayak Build, frame number 3: Building the deck

October 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build, frame number 3, building the deck. I started the new frame with a few mistakes. I missed a rotted area when prepping the gunwales and then screwed up a mortise in a way that’s actually a bit of a structural issue. Nothing I can’t work around but still a bit...

Video: West Greenland Kayak Build, on the water tests 5 + 6

October 2021September 2022Leave a comment

West Greenland Kayak Build, on the water tests 5 and 6. For my next experiment I copied a detail seen on a few historic Greenland kayaks which is to add an extra stringer below the gunwale, projecting some extra volume further down in the hull. At a little over a pound this was by...