Women Build Greenland Kayaks
Women build kayaks
Women Build Low-Weight Greenland Kayaks
Building Specs
Doerte Mann and Eris Weaver both wanted light-weight well-fitting kayaks. Both opted for a 20-inch beam and low volume. Both had paddled a number of years and were not intimidated at potential lack of stability of a narrow boat.
Here, Doerte is measuring the elevation of Eris's feet. Since this will be a low volume boat, we want to make sure that it will accomodate the feet without cramping. Note that Eris has swapped her sneakers for paddling booties to make sure that the fit will be exact. In custom fit boat, even an inch makes a difference. Other critical measurements are small of the back to the balls of the feet, position of the knees for the knee brace and elevation of the knees.
Eris has completed her frame and is checking fit once more. If something doesn't fit, now is the time to fix it. Ater the skin goes on, changes are much more difficult.
The completed boats
Deoerte's frame is finished and we take it to the mini beach on Alameda's seaplane lagoon across the street from the shop for a photo-op.
A view of the sinuous low-profile hull.
Doerte does the float test.
Eris does the float test.
And yes, the boat passes the weight and portability test. Hm, the walk to San Francisco seems doable.