Building the Greenland Kayak

This volume offers complete plans and instructions for building a lashed-frame, fabric-covered Greenland kayak. The building method is derived from traditional Inuit methods but incorporates a number of techniques designed to ensure that a novice builder can produce a strong, properly shaped hull. Few kayaks can match the Greenland kayak for simplicity, elegance and performance. Its low profile keeps windage to a minimum, and its narrow beam makes it fast and well behaved in rough waters. The hard chines carve through turns at the tip of the paddler’s hips. The kayak design set forth in this book is scalable to fit the builder, and there is also a low-volume version that is especially suited for Eskimo rolling. Building a Greenland kayak makes an excellent introduction to woodworking and boatbuilding and is an inexpensive way to get on the water in a high-performance kayak. Building it requires an investment of time so, as the author says: “the best kayak builder is one who believes the process of building a kayak is a goal in itself and not just a means to an end.“
The author first rebuilt a Greenland kayak in the early 1970s, and has built numerous Alaskan and Greenland kayaks since 1979. He taught Greenland kayak construction at the WoodenBoat school for three years, with a total of 21 students successfully building kayaks. Cunningham first wrote these instructions after finding that the only book devoted to the topic was inadequate for the do-it-yourselfer. He published the instructions in abbreviated form in 1993 – 4 in a two-part “Sea Kayaker” article that became the magazine’s most requested reprint ever. This book also includes a chapter on building a child’s kayak with outriggers for stability; chapters on equipment including paddles and rolling sticks; and a chapter on kayak paddling including strokes, braces and rolling techniques.

Author Biography

Christopher Cunningham has been the editor of Sea Kayaker magazine, America’s leading sea kayak publication, since 1989. His father first took him paddling at the age of 4 or 5. He rebuilt his first kayak in the early 1970s and has been building kayaks since 1979. He taught Greenland kayak construction at the WoodenBoat school for three years, with seven students each year producing their own kayaks. He has built four 1:5 scale models of traditional kayak frames for the Alaska State Museum and was featured building a Greenland kayak in a one-half hour episode of “Craftsmen of the World” for Japanese Public Television. Chris has twice rowed up the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska, paddled 2,500 miles from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and rowed 2,400 miles from Pittsburgh to Florida. HOMETOWN: Seattle, Washington