Variety in Greenland Kayak Types
Kayaks in Greenland varied considerably by region, purpose, and era. The variety is so great, in fact, that referring to "a Greenland type kayak" in the singular, as if it constituted a consistent, known category, would be almost as meaningless as referring to an "American-type rowboat". Old Greenland kayak, collected by Dutch whalers. Click any image to enlarge. Dutch whalers were the first Europeans to encounter Greenland kayaks, in the mid-17th century. The kayaks they found there -- and they brought a few back to Holland as evidence -- were extraordinarily narrow and had extraordinarily high length-to-beam ratios. The average length was 565 cm (18'6"), and the average width 40.5 cm (only 16 inches -- yikes!). While such a calculation may not be statistically sound, if one uses the two average figures, the length/beam ratio works out to 13.95 to 1. Over the years, shorter and broader kayaks came into favor, and by the 20th century, the average figures ...
