Windvinder, Expedition to the Origin of the Wind

Windvinder 2008

Windvinder 2005

Construction

Turbine blades

Windvinder launched

Windvinder sailing

The Bridge, an earlier project

all photographs courtesy Wipke  Iwersen

This is an amazing project which crosses the boundaries of contemporary art, science, anti science, anthropology, philosophy and fiction. In a sense it is a real fiction, a concrete dream, a three dimensional wish. Artist Wipke Iwersen has generated a Borges like expedition that almost defies explanation. The Windvinder is immensely beautiful and seems well designed to achieve it's goal, while that goal itself is nebulous and slippery. Wipke designed and built the craft, a sort of trimaran, which seems to be based on proa(Wipke calls the boat he, in typical proa fashion) and traditional kayak skin on frame building technology. It's method of propulsion is a wind turbine. At first glance I thought this was a sort of joke, but really, I know better, so I dug in and found what seems to be a profound/trivial paradox, and a lot of fun. I won't say anymore, because this kind of art is different for everyone who encounters it, and I've already colored your perceptions too much.  But I will leave you with some of the artists words:

"Windvinder is a seafaring challenge. A challenge to everything that has always remained the same – the suggestion of a new possibility. And this is exactly what this journey is about: this pull from beyond the horizon.

 

What makes us move? What drives us to push back our boundaries, further and further, beyond what is necessary or even seems possible? Why do people risk their lives to reach the North Pole, or the moon? Nobody would want to live there.

But what then do they want?

Windvinder does not travel from A to B; he is on a voyage to explore what drives him, towards the source of that invisible power that keeps his wings moving."

 

On reflection, I feel this is an important work and urge anyone capable of doing so to support this artist.

I will add one interesting note, one of the sponsors of the project is Dyson, Baidarka & Co.  

ps: added Saturday, 3/7/09; Bjorn Thommasson has also written about this project here.

I should also add that I learned of this project from Carl Cramer in the Woodenboat e-newsletter for March 2009. Thanks Carl.

Qajaq 1.9 the Historians: Knud Rasmussen

Knud Rasmussen, courtesty Wikipedia

Knud , left

 

Peter Freuchin and Knud Rasmussen, courtesy 1. og 2. Thule-ekspedition

King Island AlaskaWolf dance, photo Knud Rasmussen, courtesy kunst- und ausstellungshalle der bundesrepublik deutschland

still from The Journals  of Knud Rasmussen, courtesy Isuma

Knud's garage,  House and Museum, Hundested, Denmark.  photo courtesy Erik Daugaard

hallway/entry  courtesy Erik Daugaard

Knud's sealskins, courtesy Erik Daugaard

Knud Rasmussen's study at Hundested house,  courtesy Erik Daugaard

Panoramic window in the house at Hundested, courtesy Erik Daugaard

Memorial stone near Knud Rasmussen's house in Thule, Greenland courtesy Corbis

Knud Rasmussen is a legendary figure in Greenland. Danish father, Inuit mother, inspired around age 5 yrs. by a visit from Fridtjof Nansen, Knud aspired at this tender age to become an Arctic explorer. He did so. Born in Illuiisaat, Greenland, in 1879, Knud grew up with other native Greenlanders, but  was sent to Denmark for schooling. He went on his first expedition beginning in 1902 and culminating in his first book, Peoples of the Polar North. Knud was to prove a prolific expeditioner, initiating seven research expeditions based out of the Thule Trading Station which he had established with a friend, Peter Freuchin, in 1910 at Cape York, Greenland. The most well known and fruitful of these expeditions, The Fifth Thule Expedition, was a massive undertaking and resulted in ten volumes of ethnographic material, published in 1946, and many of the  artifacts collected found their way into Danish museums. In the course of the Fifth Thule, Knud left his team and set off by dogsled with two Inuit for a total of sixteen months, studying and gathering material on Inuit tribal peoples all across arctic North America, which is chronicled in Across Arctic America. Another fruit from this undertaking was a book about the Netsilik Eskimo. Knud Rasmussen was a skilled kayaker and collected and documented many kayaks in his journeys.

Knud Rasmussen was poised to set off on the Seventh Thule Expedition when he passed away at the age of 54, in Copenhagen, after a bought with pneumonia. His importance and standing in Greenland and to Greenlanders cannot be overstated. Witness this impassioned eulogy. 

In 2006, Isuma, the Inuit film company responsible for Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, released  The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, based on the experiences of the Fifth Thule, during which Knud had produced thirty two journals. 

Qajaq 1.8 The Historians: H C Petersen in Greenland

H. C. Petersen is a native Greenlander, born in 1929 or 1925 depending on your source, and is currently living in Denmark. I have not been able to contact him for a personal interview, so I am writing solely from information provided in his publications. I have also been hindered in gathering photographic evidence of Mr. Petersen's activities by the dearth of such info available via internet, so I am including some photos from a third party which reveal current practice  and conditions in north Greenland, specifically the Thule or Qaanaat region, see here. 

While serving as the first principal of the folk high school in Sisimuuit ( the Knud Rasmussen High School) Mr. Petersen was able to contact and speak with many of the practicing hunters and qajaq builders still active at that time and preserve their knowledge. It is my understanding that he initiated kayak building courses at the high school. He also penned several volumes collecting and preserving kayak building techniques, culture, lore and kayaking skills. These include Skinboats of Greenland,which deals with kayak and umiak and for which he constructed a umiak, Instruction in Kayak Building, an overview of the building process,  and Quaannamik Pinnguaatit, published only in Greenlandic, a book about kayak games, rope exercises and other customs designed to hone kayaking skills. This book is currently being translated into English and Danish. H. C. travelled throughout Greenland researching these volumes, and spent time in Denmark researching museum collections. His work is a highly valued contribution to the knowledge of skinboats in Greenland, specifically and of indigenous peoples and their heritage in general. Martin Nissan of Qajaq Kobenhavn  reports the Mr. Petersen has been quite gratified to see the revival of interest in traditional Greenlandic kayaking engendered by the Qaannat Kattuffiat, and it's affiliates in the US and Denmark. Avail yourself of his writing, his knowledge.

Green Machine

Mike at Timmynocky has posted a link about an exciting new development based in Norway which has the potential to supply green electricity by exploiting the chemical differences between salt and freshwater to produce a kind of battery based on the reverse osmosis principles now in use at desalination plants. The technology,  if practicable, would be appropriate for most large estuary's worldwide. Lab tests have been run and the project managers are ramping up for full scale tests. Click the title bar or better yet, visit Timmynocky to delve a little deeper. Seems promising, but I am not a scientist or engineer. All opinions will be given space here. Let me hear from you.

Kayak 1.7 The Historians: Captain George Comer, Whaling Anthropologist

George Comer in the rigging, courtesy Mystic Seaport

Inuit Family,  photograph George Comer, courtesy Mystic eaport

Hudson Bay Inuit carving, collected by George Comer, courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization

Hudson Bay Inuit carving, collected George Comer, courtesy Canadian Museum od Civilization

Netsilik Family, George Comer photograph, courtesy Mystic Seaport

Netsilik Kayak drawing courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization/Dr. Eugene Arima

Replica and photograph courtesy Harvey Golden

Captain George Comer's life story is as unlikely as it is interesting. Born in Quebec in 1858 to a seafaring father, he emigrated to New England around age five, with his mother. At age seventeen in 1875 he had found his way to New London, where he shipped out as a green hand on the Nile, a whaling barkentine bound for the Arctic whaling grounds. Though it would be over a decade before he returned to the arctic, the trip was seminal and set the course for the arc of George Comer's life and adventures. After several seasons of sealing from Cape Horn to the Indian Ocean, Comer returned to the Arctic with his original captain, John Spicer, with three annual whaling trips to Hudson Bay in the Era, a 91  ft. topsail schooner. In '93 he returned (as second mate aboard the Canton) to winter over in the Hudson Bay for the first time. It was a significant experience which fed a growing interest in the natural world and anthropology. Long winter hours. Inuit camped nearby. He collected.

His life changed in 1897 when the father of American anthropology, Franz Boas contacted Comer's former captain Spicer for information about the Hudson Bay Inuit. Spicer referred him to Comer, who had taken over as captain of the Era. It was, as stated by Fred Calabretta in "Sea History" magazine, Comer's 'defining moment'. Asked to put together a collection of Eskimo artifacts from the Hudson Bay area, Comer impressed Boas immensely. He went on to become a highly regarded figure in North American anthropology under Boas' tuteledge, taking over 300 pictures of Canadian Inuit and recording the first Inuit voices in Canada, telling stories and singing songs. His closest friend among the Inuit was a Shaman, Ippaktuk (shaman) Tasseok, andhe had a longtime female Inuit companion, Nivisinaaq.

In 1916, while icebound in north Greenland, near Qaanaaq, or Thule, Comer discovered a kitchen midden which yeilded the first evidence of a paleo-Eskimo civilization, ancestors of the modern Inuit, which became known as the Thule Culture.

The kayak, or more properly qajaq seen above was collected by Comer in 1913, a year after he had retired from whaling. It's a Netsilik or Natlinglimuit style, and one of the only two qajaq I'm aware of him having collected ( the other was also built in replica by H. Golden, see his Caribou Inuit Kayak here). There may have well been more. This is a Caribou Eskimo craft, used in lakes and rivers for hunting caribou.

This kayak has struck my imagination and I am planning to build a replica, or near replica of this fine example of Inuit craftsmanship and creativity. It was my interest in this boat that led me to discover and research George Comer. I found valuable and facinating information on Comer from a variety of sources, especially the above mentioned magazine article , but also at the Mystic Seaport, where there is a large exhibit devoted to Comer, see website, the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, and the Dartmouth College Library. The replica was built by Harvey Golden, to plans found in "Inuit Kayaks in Canada" by Dr. Eugene Arima. My thanks to all .

More light on the "Ahmad Bin Majid"

loading Warren's hulls for New Zealand

all photos Warren Matthews

Warren Matthews is a New Zealander who was having a Tiki 38 built at the same boatyard responsible for Creed O'Hanlon's Ahmad Bin Majid. He was just behind Creed in building order, but recently decided to remove his project from the yard in Thailand to his home area in NZ to complete his build. He recently wrote about his reasons for doing so here. Add that to this and this. The whole picture begins to clear a little. Or does it? Take a look at this thread on the Boat Design Forums last August. Warren is planning another post in a day or so to relate his on site observations at the boatyard.
Also here and here. (New 2/15/09)

Kayak 1.6 History, the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, NL

all photographs courtesy Lyndon  Kearsley

The Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands houses this stunning kayak  collection/display. Lyndon Kearsley, a British Islander living in Belguim shared these photos taken at the museum last year and recently posted them on the Qajaq Usa forum. He is promising more from his tour of kayak colllections last year. After seeing these photographs, taken in available light with no tripod, I asked Lyndon to tell me about his interest in traditional kayaks. He responded that... "I have a life long love of kayaks. My first was a canvas covered wooden one for my 6th birthday. My dad said I could paddle it once I could swim 100 yards. Didn't take long. Caught on to the skin-on-frame kayak culture having come across Cunningham's book. The internet did the rest. Once you have built one yourself visits to exhibitions such as Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, Holland are an education. Genius in ingenuity, design and simplicity".

I'll say! Lyndon has promised more photos from two other museums. I'm looking forward to seeing them. You can view the entire album of kayak and kayak related items taken by Lyndon at the Leiden museum here .

A (stuck ) Tiki in Thailand

All photos RB Boatworks

Creed O'hanlon recently emerged from his self imposed silence. Very unlike him, silence. I hadn't heard from him for some time, and his blog, 'A Tiki in Thailand' had shut down. I was concerned. Indeed as it turns out, Mr. O'Hanlon had some medical issues but report's he's on the mend. In the meantime I saw other sources on the web saying Creed was dismayed with the final issue of his Tiki and had refused delivery of the boat. Creed confirmed this, said he'd lawyered up, and that's about all. Except that he would like to issue a cautionary note to anyone contemplating a build in Southeast Asia, unless you can be onsite to watch the progress and quality of work. He is remaining mum due to pending litigation. The builder, Raoul Bianchetti of RB Boatworks, has recently published a suite of photos (see above) of the Tiki in question. She looks great, but apparently what cannot be seen are flaws deep enough to dissuade Creed from accepting the build.

You can read more about this 'situation' here. And take a look at Creed's new weblog "A Sea in Solitude". Creed, I wish you a speedy recovery and a happy outcome.

postscript: anyone who's had or is having a similiar experience with long distance builds, please let us know about it.

Minimalist Cruising part 8, Atalanta Et Al

courtesy Joann

courtesy Gavin Atkin, intheboatshed

courtesy Gavin Atkin, intheboatshed

courtesy Gavin Atkin, intheboatshed

courtesy Joann

courtesy Joann

Gavin Atkin over at intheboatshed brought these boats to light today.  Built by the legendary British yard Fairey Marine both the Atalanta and her slightly larger spinoff  Titiana would serve well as minimal cruisers.The series started in 1955 and it's a model of the  streamlined thinking of that period- soft curves, but these may add seaworthiness. That said, these look like very interesting cruising boats, with a center cockpit and  small aft cabin, perfect for the singlehander. They were hot moulded, using the technology from the war years. In fact, Fairey was responsible for many aircraft built during WWII using this same method. It's a lovely boat, full of soft curves . Not many iterations were built but you might pick one up. Put a junk rig on her and sail around. The harbor, the island, the world. Click the here to reach the owners group.