Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Greenland kayaks in the Netherlands

picture of qajaq.nl, used with permission of Tom Steenbergen

Perfectly timed at “Pakjesavond – 5th December” a air parcel post containing Harvey Goldens’ book “Kayaks of Greenland” arrived at Woerden. The word “book” is a understatement for this masterpiece covering 300 years of kayak-history. At the first glance of the book I noticed by coincidence the description of some kayaks out of the collections of the Dutch Ethnological Museums in Den Hague and Leiden (both museums have a impressive collection of Inuit art, worth a visit!). For those who understand Swedish: Björn Thomasson has written a more extensive review of Harveys’ book.

For the Dutch enthusiasts of Greenland Kayaks the qajaq.nl site is interesting. Dick van Zanten and Tom Steenbergen are doing a good job in promoting traditional Greenland-style kayaking in the Netherlands. Lost month they added a new report to the qajaq.nl site covering their experiences in building a new Greenland Kayak and a Baidarka. These qayaqs are built according traditional greenlandic design and techniques, but equipped with some modern elements like bulkheads and hatches. Tom and Dick created in this way promising crossovers between a qayaq and a seakayak. I am looking forward to meet the first greenland SKOF-kayak at a Dutch seakayak-trip!

1 comment:

Michael said...

It looks like an interesting design, especially the idea of bulkheads. I'd be interested to know whether they are water-tight or not. How were they installed? Perhaps you'll be able to give an update at some point after you've seen them.