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Building the Greenland Kayak : A Manual for Its Contruction and Use

Building the Greenland Kayak : A Manual for Its Contruction and Use

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fairly complicated but good
Review: A usfull book for both the historian and any person wiht an interest in Greenland style kayaking. The photos are very detailed as is the text. Well worth the time and the money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another exceelent addition to the literature
Review: Chris Cunningham has been publishing construction articles for years in Sea Kayaker magazine, so it's not surprising that he's decided to write a full length book on the topic. And an excellent book it is, too. There are hundreds of excellent photos and drawings, extensive detailed instructions and plenty of discussion an alternate methods of construciton.

This is certainly one of the best books on the topic of Greenland kayak construciton yet, and an absolute must-own for anyone interested in building their own traditional kayak. This volume, along with Robert Morris' book (Building Skin on Frame Kayaks) and perhaps H. C. Peterson's "Instruction in Kayak Building" would make as complete a library on kayak construciton as one might imagine.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent - the one guide you need
Review: If you are interested in building a traditional, relatively authentic West Greenland ocean kayak, one of the most gorgeous watercraft ever built, this is your book. Cunningham lays out the task from beginning to end with clarity and wit, and the process is topped off with explanations and plans for traditional paddling gear such as floats and tuiliks, the one piece "dry suits" that fit over the coaming. The book can be confusing in places, but this rests in large part on the fact that the measurements are anthropometric in nature. There can't be measured drawings for something that is going to be different for every person. The kayak you build will be completely custom made to fit you, and noone else, so he can't get too energetic with the tape measure. What you do get are step by step explanations for HOW you arrive at those measurements, so that you can make boats for yourself and anyone else. The frame is pretty authentic, other than that dimensioned lumber is used - you would have trouble telling a drawing of this frame from a drawing of an original Inuit frame. Of course the big departure is the skin, which in our case is not seal skin but rather ballistic nylon and two part polyurethane dope. Not traditional, but gorgeous, waterproof and long lasting. You can expect to get 10 years out of a well cared for boat - not bad for a boat you built yourself in a few weekends, for about the cost of a good touring paddle. If you're looking for a quicky project, or one that you can knock together out of plywood with the Scout Troop, look elsewhere. But if you're looking for the real deal, you've found it. Highly recommended.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Needs more diagrams
Review: Overall, I enjoyed the book. Cunningham has a lot of knowledge about traditional building techniques. However, I found several areas where I was confused, while building the kayak. I found myself hi-liting certain, critical areas, and reading some phrases over and over to make sure that I was interpreting it correctly. More drawings with dimensions would have eliminated the vagaries of prepositions and interpretations.

The instruction on determining rib lengths using a hand-drawn graph was confusing. I read it over and over, then after figuring out what was being done, I simply put the data in a spreadsheet to calculate the lengths.

The directions on making the spray skirt was especially confusing. For example, on sewing the webbing on, it says to sew the webbing such that the legs of the v-shape of the webbing is even with the edge of the fabric. That would mean that the webbing would point in the opposite direction of the finished product. The book never did explain how the the webbing ends up in the correct direction. I strained to interpret from the photo of the person wearing the spray skirt. I finally did end up with a usable spray skirt, but not without some cursing and frustration.

Having built flying model airplanes for many years, I find visual plans much easier to deal with. If I need the dimension for something, I can just glance at the plan to find it, instead of trying to remember which paragraph contained the data.

I wish I could give it more than three stars. There were parts of the book that I enjoyed very much. However, there were times when I was extremely frustrated.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Needs more diagrams
Review: Overall, I enjoyed the book. Cunningham has a lot of knowledge about traditional building techniques. However, I found several areas where I was confused, while building the kayak. I found myself hi-liting certain, critical areas, and reading some phrases over and over to make sure that I was interpreting it correctly. More drawings with dimensions would have eliminated the vagaries of prepositions and interpretations.

The instruction on determining rib lengths using a hand-drawn graph was confusing. I read it over and over, then after figuring out what was being done, I simply put the data in a spreadsheet to calculate the lengths.

The directions on making the spray skirt was especially confusing. For example, on sewing the webbing on, it says to sew the webbing such that the legs of the v-shape of the webbing is even with the edge of the fabric. That would mean that the webbing would point in the opposite direction of the finished product. The book never did explain how the the webbing ends up in the correct direction. I strained to interpret from the photo of the person wearing the spray skirt. I finally did end up with a usable spray skirt, but not without some cursing and frustration.

Having built flying model airplanes for many years, I find visual plans much easier to deal with. If I need the dimension for something, I can just glance at the plan to find it, instead of trying to remember which paragraph contained the data.

I wish I could give it more than three stars. There were parts of the book that I enjoyed very much. However, there were times when I was extremely frustrated.


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