Brian,

The greenlanders did, according to my references, use skegs on some designs.
I stand corrected. The references I've checked on baidarkas don't mention
same. Most of the Aleuts and greenlanders were sewn into their boats, which
meant landing on beaches where such devices would be easily damaged is left
deployed. I would assume that repairing/replacing these was a pretty common
occurance.

Rick

"Brian Nystrom" wrote in message
...


Rick wrote:

Designs used by native tribesman had
no such design features and tended to be narrow, have hard chines, be
18+
feet long, and be very low in the water. Some had bifurcated hulls
(which
seemed to keep the bow low in the water to avoid wind effects - as
described
in the National Geo. presentation, "Baidarka"). None of these designs
had
skegs because the hulls were designed for very harsh conditions and the
skeg
would have added no performance advantage to the boat.

This is untrue. Skegs are actually very common on Greenlandic kayaks. They
are
commonly either built into the hull by pulling the keel stringer into a
hollow a
few feet forward of the stern, or of the strap on variety that is lashed
to the
hull. I don't recall of seeing a skeg on a baidarka, but the Aleut may
well have
used them, too.

--
Regards

Brian