Krernertok - skin on frame kayak

Summer of 2009, Turner Wilson and Cheri Perry led a kayak-building workshop in our boathouse on Vinalhaven where we built the frames.  Then we sewed the skins on the boats at Turner and Cheri's brand new (at the time) 'Qajaq House' in foothills of the White Mountains.

I wanted a boat that could catch and ride ocean waves.  Krernertok ('black', in Inuit) is 18 3/4 foot long and 18 3/4 inch wide.  It is a superb ocean boat, sliding through waves with minimal effort.  It also turns out to be a superb rolling boat - easy to roll over and eager to come back up.

With a wooden "skinny stick" Greenland paddle placed out to the side, it's also a very stable camera platform.



Most boats are built up from the keel.  The Greenland kayak is  built down from the gunwales.  The keel and chines are just strips laid on the ribs.


Looking aft down the frame - the plane made long beautiful curls of clear, straight-grain Alaskan yellow cedar.



Sewing on the cloth skin.


Looking forward from the cockpit to the bow.




Painting the cloth to waterproof it.


Originally I was going to carve a seal's head for the bow, but the long narrow boat just doesn't look like a seal.  


Krernertok glides so smoothly you can barely tell she's moving.  Here I'm chatting with the crew of the Friendship, a replica square-rigged East India trader cruising along at more than 4 knots.