My 14 year old West Greenland kayak replica and a brand new one built last week for a customer. Every few years I like to do a quick side-by-side test like this just to make sure there hasn’t been any design creep over the years.
In my late 20s I fell in love with traditional Greenland hunting kayaks but was quickly disillusioned with their paddling characteristics. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the kayaks it’s just that they were designed to do something very different than what we do today. I loved the sleek low-volume lines, however, so I went on a flurry of Greenland replica building to try to find a historic example that I actually liked paddling. I built 7 of my own hunting kayak replicas and was able to paddle a bunch from Harvey Golden’s collection as well, and I ultimately landed on this particular kayak as being one that a variety of modern paddlers could enjoy while still retaining authentic historic lines.
It still has all the idiosyncrasies of most Greenland kayaks but it’s just a little more stable, a little more maneuverable, a little easier to get in and out of, and a little bit less affected by cross winds and waves.
Since then I’ve scaled it to a variety of different sizes to try to keep the volume relationship between different size modern paddlers similar to traditional paddlers who were often much smaller.
I’m often conflicted about this kayak because as a designer I could absolutely make it paddle even better than it does. I could make it more stable, faster, less affected by the wind, and even easier to roll. But is that still a Greenland kayak if it’s dimensions have exceeded historical parameters? How about if I cut the useless pointy ends off?
It’s such a slippery slope when we think about the subject of authenticity, because let’s be honest, none of us are hunting seals in freezing water, but where I’ve landed on the subject is that I want to keep the lines as close to the historic examples, so at least in some aspect people can experience these kayaks as they actually were. I might build my own version someday but I won’t call it a Greenland kayak.
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