West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse 4: Keel, stringers, and stems. Build time so far, about 20 hours.
I love how the music came together for this one!
The actual work in this video is a little over three hours but I spent the better part of a day and a half trying to decide exactly where to locate the stringers.
On the original museum kayak they are much higher than what I decided on, which might actually help with the stability, paddling, and rolling performance. The only problem is that the skin would be touching or almost touching the ribs.
From what I can tell traditional Arctic kayak builders didn’t care much about that, but I feel like I would have a full scale revolt on my hands if I released a kayak plan set where the skin is touching the ribs!
Something else that’s different here is the straight-keel to stem joint. On the original kayak the lower stem was likely carved into the keel which is difficult to understand considering the huge increase in wood and effort required. Even with modern tools and easily available lumber there’s no way I’m going to start with a 14 foot long 1×6 just to get rid of most of it!
The final difference mentioned in the last build is that the original kayak was actually nailed together, not lashed.
I’ve been working with a heavier artificial sinew than my usual and really like it so we bought a case to ship with our kits.
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