East Greenland Kayak Build, Day 8. Deck straps, toggles, and accessories.
East Greenland kayaks have some of the most elaborate deck line and toggle patterns of any arctic kayaks, sometimes with dozens of little beads and clever tightening systems. Traditionally all of this stuff would have been used to fasten down a formidable hunting kit on deck, but these days it just ends up holding down the occasional fishing pole or smart phone. The pattern on this deck is still interesting but mercifully sparse compared to many others.
The deck lines that I use are 3/8 inch wide English Bridle leather, which gets pulled through ridiculously undersized holes to prevent leaks. I firmly believe that you should be able to tow, rescue, or carry by any line on a sea kayak so I tie them through the inside of the gunwales.
The toggles are high density polyethylene which doesn’t look quite as cool as little pieces of bone (I have used seal ribs in the past when I could find them on beaches) but its durability and machining characteristics are a lot more similar to the original toggle material which would’ve been ivory.
For this particular kayak I decided to screw brass half oval to the keel as an homage to the original kayak. The museum original has over 20 FEET of steel strips nailed to the keel and stringers to guard against ice. Adding that much metal would have made the kayak ridiculously heavy so I just went for two 4 foot strips which added about a pound and a half.
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