Baidarka

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Baidarka

The Aleutian Kayak ( Russian байдарка for " kayak "; aleutian Igax , Iqyax or Ayuxtok ) is the traditional boat of Unangan , the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands . It is a kayak made of driftwood , bones and seal skin that was used to hunt in the sea. Is a native of the Russian name of the boat, the diminutive of Baidara, the term for which is also covered with skin but larger and more open-topped boats Ukraine .

Construction

The shape of the Baidarka appears peculiar, but it enabled its builders to survive in a struggle for existence in a region characterized by strong tide changes and known as the “birthplace of the wind” or the “cradle of the storm”. The bow is split in two and the stern ends abruptly butt.

The Baidarka was built with one or more manholes. The split bow fulfills two functions, on the one hand it breaks waves , on the other hand it creates buoyancy that lifts the boat in the wave. The blunt-ended stern also generates lift, which is positively noticeable on downwind course. The blunt stern and the lower part of the bow also allow the greatest possible waterline length in relation to the length of the boat. The pronounced V-bottom ensures a high level of final stability . The roof shape of the deck allows water to run off easily and allows for more storage space.

historical development

The North Pacific around the barren islands of the Aleutian Islands is rich in food and raw materials and the Aleutian population was adapted to a life from the sea . The baidarka was a powerful Aleutian tool made from driftwood, whale bones and the skins of sea ​​lions . With this it was possible to benefit from the wealth of marine mammals and to get food as well as bones, skins, fat and other important raw materials.

Traditionally, the Aleutians hunted with several two-seater baidarkas, with the rear position occupied by the paddler and the front position occupied by the shooter. Three-person baidarkas were not used for hunting, but for transporting children or the elderly or the sick to a shaman on a neighboring island. In winter, when the Aleutians withdrew to their shelters, the barabaras , the covering was stripped from the fur of sea mammals to protect them from drying out and breaking until the new hunting season.

Little is known about the exact origin of the baidarka, as the boats themselves are built from materials that rot quickly and the Aleutians have no records that could provide information. One can only assume that it was a long time ago. Even when the first European explorers traveled to America , boats of this and similar designs were widespread - from Greenland to Russia beyond the Bering Strait and from the northernmost habitable areas to as far south as the boats that were sealed with whale grease, withstood the temperatures.

European explorers were impressed by the performance and elegance of these small boats, which were far superior in many respects to designs known up to that point. Martin Sauer, secretary of an expedition commissioned by Catherine the Great , which started for Alaska in 1785 , writes:

"The baidars, or boats, of Oonalashka are infinitely superior to those of any other island. If perfect symmetry, smoothness, and proportion constitute beauty, they are beautiful; to me they appeared so beyond anything that I ever beheld. I have seen some of them as transparent as oiled paper, through which you could trace every formation of the inside and the manner of the natives sitting in it; whose light dress, painted and plumed bonnet, together with its perfect ease and activity, added infinitely to its elegance. Their first appearance struck me with amazement beyond expression. "

Innokenti Weniaminov , a Russian missionary and explorer, wrote:

“Like all islanders, the Aleutians inevitably have to have some kind of boat to get from one island to another ... But nature failed to provide them with the materials they need to build boats . On the other hand, as in compensation, she gave them greater ingenuity in perfecting a particular type of vessel: the baidarka. "

At the beginning of the 19th century, Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff , a humanistic scientist from Göttingen, was the first to publish exact photographs and descriptions of the Aleut hunting boats and also drove them for long distances himself.

The superiority of the Aleutian Kayak made themselves already in the late 16th century, Russian hunters to Use, who came to Alaska to sea otters to hunt because Seeotterfelle in Imperial China were traded expensive. Initially the Russians, who used primitive ships and were inexperienced in seafaring and navigation , found it difficult to hunt successfully under the unfamiliar conditions and to build an infrastructure for supplying and transporting the skins. However, they quickly adopted the hunting techniques and soon part of the other lifestyle of the Aleutians and exploited the region's natural resources with all too great success. The Aleutian population forced them to support the overexploitation of the sea otter populations by force.

The needs of the Russian hunters, which differed from those of the Aleutians, soon led to new designs and applications of the Baidarka. For example, wider and longer boats were built that could carry more goods, or Baidarkas with a third seat in the middle for the transport of passengers.

Later versions of the Baidarka were used successfully under extreme conditions. For example, the engineering historian and boat builder George B. Dyson built Baidarkas from aluminum tubes and epoxy-coated fiberglass covers in the 1970s and 1980s. a. a six-person boat 48 feet long. Dyson has repeatedly traveled with his boats on the Inside Passage on the coast of Alaska and British Columbia .

Despite all the technological advances , many of today's expedition kayaks are very similar to the Baidarka of the Aleutians. The highly developed materials used today by the descendants of the Baidarka, such as aluminum alloys (instead of whale bones and driftwood), hypalon , neoprene , polyurethane (instead of whale fat) and Cordura (instead of sea lion skin) improve maintainability, durability and resilience enormously. But in terms of handling and weight, the traditionally built boats are still competitive, which is why many enthusiasts still build baidarkas in a form similar to the original design.

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