Kayak & Canoe Models

These are a few of the models I've made over the years. They aren't replicas, and they even aren't what I would consider to be particularly well-made, but they are in my eyes pretty. Where a full-size usable boat embodies hopes and dreams, models instead are limited to dreams. My inspirations are all over the place, but you might correctly suspect that A.C. Haddon & James Hornell's "Canoes of Oceania" figured prominently.


An Aivilingmiut/Iglulik ocean kayak. Length is 20-1/4" --full size would be around 17-19'.


Two models of sewn-plank canoes: Top, a Chumash Tomol (21-1/4" long; full-size would be ~30');
Bottom, a Yukaghiri Wetka (16"-- full-size= ~16'). Each have double bladed paddles; the Tomol seats four paddlers, and their paddles' blades are all feathered 90 degrees.


Samoan Outrigger Canoe. Length:13-1/4". Full size: 22-35'.


Unangan 3-Hole Kayak. Length: 22-1/4" Full-size: ~23-25'


Hudson Straits Umiak. Length: 20-1/4" Full-size ~24-30'. This model is covered in leather.


Left: Siassi Island Vaka (16" long; full-size = ~30-45').
Right Fijian Vaka Thamakau (11" long; full-size = ~23-40').


Caribou Inuit Kayak-- the prettiest boat form in the world(?) Length:25" Full-size ~22-28'.


Santa Cruz Islands Vaka. Length 24" Full-size up to 45'.


Unangan Kayak model-- built half-size (~8'9" long) and presently at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University. This is a model of the National Musuem of Finland's VK 228 of circa 1820s, collected by Adolph Etolin. I've since buit a full-size version of the VK 228.


A model umiak made from Ivan Koriukin's 1805 drawing of a "Baidara from the Peninsula of Alaska" -- either Aleut/Unangan or Pacific Yupik/Sugpiaq. The model measures 37" by 4-3/4" and the orginal is just under 40 feet long and 49" wide.

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