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> Hi Dean,
> Im guessing here a bit, but I've done wildlife paintings of Puffins and I
> believe that big eyelet is in keeping with the birds patterning. You know,
> the exaggerated eye patterns and such on the real bird
Just a few words on the Bering Sea style kayak. I can't really take full credit for the design of the Puffin. I only slightly modified an actual kayak that was recorded in 1889. I started with the boat in figure 180 in "The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America" The primary change is the cockpit, and reducing the beam from 30" to 25 1/2". Other than that, the boat is pretty much as pictured in the book. Figure 177, a couple of pages back in the book presents the lines of a "Bristol Bay Kayak" which is basically the same hull with a different deck (no bow hole). Figures 174 and 175 show photos of frames for both of these styles.
The web site link in Bram's post really has a lot of info on these kind of kayaks. It would seem to be an interesting alternative for a skin on frame build. The hull is really similar to the aleutian kayak in Brink's book. This, combined with the photos in the link in Bram's post should give a pretty good idea for building.
Admittedly, the Bering Sea kayaks (and the baidarkas, for that matter) are vastly different from Greenland boats, and may seem strange, at first. Seems like almost everything that we are exposed to, including most of the composite and many of the poly commercial kayaks, are really just some variant of the Greenland style.
Anyhow, we just felt like trying something different, and put out the info for anyone that might be interested in doing something similar. I will be posting the offsets on our web site as soon as I make a few minor modifications AND include numbers for the alternate deck style. Will probably take me a few weeks. Feel free to experiment with them. In the meantime, maybe those who sometimes suggest that we "march to the beat of a different drum" are not all that wrong ;>). After all, we do have the largest banana plantion in northern Minnesota!
Happy building, Grant
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Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
