Word: baidarka
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...baidarka changed markedly under the influence of the Russians and then began to disappear with the end of the sea-otter hunts in the last century. After World War II, the Aleuts switched to motor-powered craft. In his efforts to reconstruct the original kayaks, Dyson, based in Bellingham, Wash., relies on early accounts of explorers and sea captains...
...most intriguing elements of baidarka design are those that show the Aleuts' rejection of typical kayak forms in favor of a distinctive approach. Dyson speculates that the forked bow prevents the boat from submarining in waves. It also gives the kayak the speed advantage of a longer, slenderer craft, and may set up a wave that counteracts the drag-inducing bow wave of ordinary designs. The oddly configured stern may help the kayak make the transition from a vessel that pushes through the water to one that planes on top of the water...
Dyson believes that the baidarka will have a robust future, influencing the shape of modern sport kayaks. Physicist Francis Clauser designed a forked-bow craft for a syndicate in the 1986-87 America's Cup race. Dyson still speaks of the genius of the Aleut kayak builders with reverence: "Modern science has recognized all the elements that went into the baidarka, but nobody put them together to achieve a synthesis the way the Aleuts...
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