: Are you from Ireland, Mike? I'm in Oregon, and grew up on Puget
: Sound where there are a few gigs, but never heard them called
: anything but gigs. Its always interesting to hear regional
: differences like that. Also, as a designer and builder of my own
: SOF kayak design, I find it amusing and slightly frustrating
: that Brian's designs, as well as mine, are almost always hailed
: as some kind of Greenland "derivative", when if fact
: the lines have less in common with Greenland boats than the
: ubiquitous fiberglass Brit boats, which are generally allowed to
: stand on their own as designs. Of course, all kayaks are
: ultimately Inuit derivatives, but there's a pervasive
: confusion/inability to differentiate between construction method
: and design that I find surprising.

Hi Tom,
From Ireland? No, Boston born, just grew up here. A proper mongerel. :D
The 'long pointy boat' isn't so much a regional difference, more an endearing term used when ya can't recall the proper name.

I don't know whether to call my baidarka after an elder boatman call my baidarka a curracheen (small currach). Easier to pronounce than iqyak, or maybe less confusing.

Don't be frustrated with the word "derivative", given what Harvey's book shows the wide shape/proportions possibles with a double-ended kayak that the Inuit built, it'd be impossible to design an totally unique design.

Mike Savage
South West Cork