New Podcast - Duncan Winning. Try this one.^

[Simon Willis]

I'm particularly pleased with the latest Podcast just published. Listen and subscribe free here or download directly from the Podcast Library.

Few people know more about the origins and use of the Inuit kayak than Duncan Winning OBE.

A marine engineer, he studied the kayak brought back from Greenland in 1960 by Ken Taylor and drew its design. Those drawings became the blueprint for more than forty different designs of modern sea kayak.

In 2004 he made a ‘pilgrimage’ to the village of Igdlorssuit in North Greenland with a copy of the original designs.

Duncan is Honorary President of the Scottish Canoe Association and a technical archive surveyor. I visited him at the archive where he works.

If you haven't yet listened to a Podcast, please try this one. Duncan is a fascinating talker. Listening is very easy, particularly from the Podcast Library where there are now instructions.
S

[Pelagic]

Hi Simon,
fantastic podcast, enjoyed it immensely. I was particularly interested in the story of Ken Taylors boat, and it's ongoing development. My son Alex paddles the latest iteration so I thought you may be interested in some visuals to show how Duncans designs are being used................extra points if you know where they were all taken!
By the way Duncan , he loves it to death...............



It isn't always flat calm............


Isn't that just the prettiest thing?

Heres the original, Ken on Loch Lomond demonstrating the now forgotten art of harpooning!

Thanks again Simon, great job.

Phil

[Simon Willis]

Phil- that's fantastic. I've addded a link to this page from the front of the SeaKayakRoutes.com RRS feed about Duncan's Podcast. Thanks for the photos.
S

[Westview]

Simon - Very good of you to do the podcast with Duncan Winning. The origins of modern Greenland style kayaks was most interesting.

I was able to understand almost all of Duncan's Scottish burr ;)

Westview

[Pelagic]

Tom asked me to post the following pics, living history eh? Brilliant.

Tom says:
"The two fellows who started it all along with Greenlander Emanuele" Korneiliussen who built the kayak that spawned the Anas Acuta.

Ken Taylor and Duncan Winning




Kens boat and the Anas Acuta.

Notice the shape of the stern on Kens boat you qaarsut owners?

Phil

[Simon Willis]

Phil - that is superb. Thanks for posting.

[geyrfugl]

Oooh, good podcast ! But I wish you'd asked us here for some questions first. I'm currently starting some building projects based on the Inverkip drawing and Bryan Hansel's FreeShip file based on it and there are a few bits of information about the derivation of the Anas Acuta from the Ken Taylor kayak that I'd love to know.

The Inverkip drawing shows the Ken Taylor kayak with a waterline "carrying 147 lb", but that is the only clue. I've often heard that the Anas was basically just a stretched KTK, but it was interesting to hear Duncan suggest that there were mods to make it more realisable in plywood. But what I really want to know is how tall was Ken Taylor and was that 147 lb just him, or did it include some gear ? And how tall and heavy was Geoff Blackford, since what became the Anas was designed to his size ?

Too late to ask now, I suppose :-(

Andy

[Simon Willis]

Hi Andy

It's not too late as Duncan will be at the Skye Symposium. If you're going you can ask him yourself. If not, I'm sure someone would ask him on your behalf. PM me with precise questions and I'll try, although I'll be quite busy recording podcasts and photographing and writing for the organisers.

Actually, those sound like the sort of specialised questions best asked personally, rather than for 'broadcast' in a Podcast, so now is probably the best time to ask.

It raises a good point about trawling for questions here first. I received loads of very helpful suggestions before recording the Coastguard podcast. However, not all will appear in the final edit because there simply wasn't enough time - it would run over an hour and fifteen minutes and that eats bandwidth.

Will people be disappointed, or even annoyed, that their question doesn't seem to have been covered, and would they suggest a question in future if I've had to cut it and the reply from a previous podcast? We'll see....
S

[Mark R]

I'd like to know, what is his favourite colour?

[journeyman]

- it would run over an hour and fifteen minutes and that eats bandwidth.

Have you considered uploading the sound as a blank video file (sound only) to google video or utube? That would solve your bandwidth problem.

I'm sure we would all like to hear the answers to a lot of those relavent questions.

E

[MikeB]

It's certainly worth listening to Duncan, if only for his prnunciation of the word "kayak".

Mike

[Jim]

Duncan can almost certainly be contacted through the SCA office (he is some kind of honorary officer) and although I've only met him once I can tell he's the kind of guy that would love to chat about kayak history with anyone at any time.

Jim

[Dave Thomas]

he's the kind of guy that would love to chat about kayak history with anyone at any time.

Or about pretty well anything else, for that matter! For example, I think you'ld probably find a lot of common ground on marine engineering, Jim.

[Jim]

Ah, but I know very little about Marine Engineering!

Jim

[Dave Thomas]

But you probably would do after talking to Duncan!! (or listening to him, anyhow!!!)

[Westview]

But what I really want to know is how tall was Ken Taylor and was that 147 lb just him, or did it include some gear ? And how tall and heavy was Geoff Blackford, since what became the Anas was designed to his size ?

Too late to ask now, I suppose :-(

Andy

In Harvey Golden's book " Kayaks of Greenland " mentions that Ken Taylor is 5'8" and 147 # no mention of his favourite color though.

Here is Mr. Taylor's user profile from the qajaqusa.org website :

With my old friend Campbell Semple, I kayaked the West Coast of Scotland from the Firth of Clyde up to and around Cape Wrath back in the 1950s. The day before we went around Cape Wrath we met Dr Harald Drever, a geologist at St. Andrews University. He had been to Illorsuit, Greenland I think it was four times by that date (1958) and was a great admirer of the kayaking skills of the villagers.
That winter he arranged for me to spend the summer of 1959 in Illorsuit. That was quite simply the most wonderful summer of my life!
The kayak that Emanuele Korneleisen [there's some doubt about the spelling] made for me is the famous one that Duncan Winning later surveyed and that the Anas Acuta and Nordkapp designs are "descended from." Emanuele also made an identical kayak frame for John Heath.
That experience led to my studying cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. While there I made a canvas covered (rough) replica of the kayak which I used to perfect my kayak rolling, based on what I'd been shown in Illorsuit, and also used on two camping/kayaking trips on the Boundary Waters between Minnesota and Canada.
I spent some years in Brazil, came back to the US, revived my interest in kayaking with a rented Chinook on a trip to the Thousand Islands and then built a Chinook-sized canvas covered kayak based on the Illorsuit design. I've used that one (which I still have) on camping/kayaking trips on the coast of Maine, in the Algonquin Provincial Park, and in the Quetico Wilderness Park, both in Canada.
That (and some kayak rolling in the pond at Twin Oaks Community where I now live) had been that for a number of years.
A few months ago David Heath contacted me with the sad news of his father John's recent death and also put Harvey Golden in touch with me.
Thru Harvey I learned of Qaannat Kattuffiat and Qajaq USA.
I've just sent off my first post to the Greenland Kayaking Forum and I can't tell you how delighted I am to be back in the universe of Greenland kayaking.
I've begun preparing a Web Page to put out the story of my 1959 trip to Illorsuit and to make my (many) photos from that summer available to all.
I'd be glad to hear from anyone who reads this!

Ken Taylor

[Harvey.Anderson]

For more information regarding Ken Taylor and the contributions of Duncan Winning visit www.garnockcanoeclub.co.uk.

Harvey

[Pelagic]

I've begun preparing a Web Page to put out the story of my 1959 trip to Illorsuit and to make my (many) photos from that summer available to all.

Any updates on that Tom? I for one would be very interested.

Phil

[Westview]

Phil - I too am waiting for Ken to put up a web-page ! I got the impression that Ken was going strong and a busy man.

If there is any word about the web page I will post it here.

Tom

[Pelagic]

Many thanks Tom...........

Phil

[geyrfugl]

I can tell he's the kind of guy that would love to chat about kayak history with anyone at any time

Oh yes, I can vouch for that. The first time I took my home-built greenland style boat to Scotland, I had parked in Largs and gone to get fish and chips. Upon return to my car, I was accosted by a chap who asked all sorts of questions about it. As I was trying to eat chips before they went cold, and as my head was full of a different boat that I had been working on earlier in the day I didn't make a very good job of answering all the questions - for instance I denied that the West Greenlandic name of my boat "Piqqalujamik takkujumavunga" was inuit. doh ! Inuit was the word Duncan had used but "Aleut" was the word my head heard because I'd been trying to find an Aleut name for an upcoming baidarka-style boat during the day. At the end of the interview Duncan handed me his card and departed, probably thinking I was an idiot .... I had failed to guess who he was up to that point so missed my chance to ask him all sorts of questions :-(

Andy

[ThomasD]

D'oh indeed! I guess it pays to humor the inquisitors. Should have offered him some chips! Might have even told you his favorite color.

Simon, I have greatly enjoyed the history lessons this weekend.

Thomas Duncan

[Westview]

Just an update that kayak researcher Vernon Doucette is slowly working on Ken Taylor's Greenland photographs , likely will be posted on the qajaqusa.org website. Hopefully it won't be too much longer ...

[MikeB]

Just to add that I did some research on Ken's boat for an article I wrote on the Nordkapp, and the actual boat and other artifacts that Ken brought back still exist and are in Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, although not on display as they are held in their reserve collections.

It seems that the stores are closed to the public until spring 2009 as they are undertaking a major reorganisation and move to new premises.

Additionally, they hold black and white photos of the boat on Loch Lomond, and other documentation. This is held in the archive at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and can be made available by appointment.

They advise that there has been quite a lot of interest in this kayak over the years and when the stores re-open they would be delighted to show enthusiasts the kayak and the hunting equipment brought back by Ken Taylor from Illorsuit in 1959.

It's such a shame this this interesting and culturally important material, and the boat itself, isn't on public display. Especially so given the interest in sea paddling recently.

Mike.