Building a bamboo biadarka
The biadarka is a type of kayak. It is much longer and slimmer than a whitewater kayak. Designed by the native people of the Pacific Northwest it is an ocean going boat, made for riding over the waves and easy to roll back upright if capsized. Biadarkas were used for hunting otter and seal. These boats could stay out for days and travel great distances rapidly. The natives made overcoats that tied into the boat keeping the water out. The construction method is called “skin on frame”. They are usually made from something like cedar, redwood, or spruce for the longer pieces such as stringers and keel. Most keels are in three pieces, most likely because longer pieces of wood were hare to find in the artic. The ribs are usually made with slim willow shoots that can easily be bent to shape. Traditionally the framework was covered with seal skins, sewn together and stretched tight. Today they are covered with canvas or nylon. I’ve build a canvas covered kayak in the past but it was heavy and wide, stable and great for kids but not very fast. I’ve wanted to build a biadarka for years. I love the long slim lines of the boat and the construction method. I wanted to do something a little different and try to incorporate bamboo into the project as much a possible. I was afraid to change things too much as I really wanted it to be usable. I ended up using red cedar for the gunwales and split bamboo for the ribs along with small bamboo pegs. I split the ribs from a piece of Moso bamboo, down near the butt so the walls were thick. It was still green somewhat when I split it.
There will be several long “stringers” that will be bamboo poles. In the pictures I am using cedar for temporary stringes and will replace them once all the ribs are in and the bow and stern pieces are complete. Tonkin bamboo is my first choice for stringers and I believe I can harvest enough from my own groves. The boat is currently hanging from the rafters of my shop while I complete some other projects. I intend to finish it up in time one of these days.
I started with two long boards for the gunwales, about 2″ by 16′. The biadarka will be about 17 1/2 feet long when finished. The cross pieces are also red cedar. I used two dowels at each joint to secure these top frames to the gunwales. It was important to use gunwales as straight as possible as this was the basic shape of the boat.
In the picture below left I’ve started to insert the ribs. The long white board on top is the keel. There are about 50 ribs so there’s quite a ways to go. I’ve got holes drilled where the ribs are inserted into the gunwales. I used a chisel to square up the holes so the ribs will fit snugly. On the right below is a close-up of one of the rib holes.
