umiak model

The Arctic skin boat known to the Inuit as the umiak was both wider and deeper than the kayak and, unlike the kayak, was not decked. Paul-Emile Victor gives a perfect description of theumiak in Boréal, the account of his first stay in Greenland:
“Boat for the Eskimo family. It is made of a wooden skeleton on which greased seal skins are stretched. It’s 7 to 10 meters long and about 1.50 meters wide at its widest point. Everything is piled into it: furs, skins, tents, food supplies, seals killed on the move, basins, crates, planks, children, dogs and old people. A man at the stern steers. It’s usually the women who row. Indeed, when umiaks were used for transport, it was the women who rowed them. Men used single-bladed paddles when the craft was used for whaling. By the time of first contact with Europeans, the umiak was no longer used in the central Canadian Arctic. However, the Inuit of the western and eastern Arctic continued to build and use these seaworthy craft until they were replaced by whaleboats and motor canoes in the early 20th century. Our model is typical of the Canadian Western Arctic, with its protruding gunwales and narrow, streamlined shape
A similar model is preserved at the Canadian Museum of History (Inv.MCC IV-D-41) Price: €1,700 without base