The world’s first female whitewater open canoe designer

[Glenn MacGrady]

Sabrina Barm. Of Germany. Designer of the Esquif Extasy.

Here's an article about Sabrina, who's also "the first female canoeist to compete in North Carolina’s infamous Green River Race, running the intimating class V rapid known as Gorilla."

Sabrina Barm Designs Esquif's Extasy Canoe

Sabrina Barm identified a critical fault in open canoeing in that the market was exclusively comprised of boats designed by men. So, she decided to change all that. With her new Esquif Extasy, Barm says she achieved her goal of creating “the most intense form of joy.” Read here about her journey...

paddlingmag.com

And here's a short video of Sabrina portaging and paddling an Extasy on a solo winter run in Lofer, Austria, with a carbon Freefall paddle. Talk about an asymmetrical canoe design, even a flat back!

 

[stevet]

Wonder what purpose the flat back serves.

 

[Punkinhead]

I'm most impressed by the carry to the put-in.

 

[Benson Gray]

It takes an unusually large number of adjectives to claim a new 'first' today and the distinctions between a canoe designer, builder, and company manager can be a bit vague. A number of women have held these roles over the years including: May MInto, Maggie Jean Chestnut, Pam Wedd, Annie Harris, and others. Many of their open canoe designs have been regularly used in whitewater even if that wasn't their primary purpose.

Benson

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Wonder what purpose the flat back serves.

Yes, a good question. I imagine she doesn't do much back ferrying or any sort of back paddling. The linked Esquif page on the Extasy says: "The design features the latest insights into state-of-the art fluid dynamics, based on the leading scientific study on whitewater boat geometry. (Engineering Kanuslalom, realized at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences)."

I'd certainly like to read that study. Maybe someone here can find it.

It takes an unusually large number of adjectives to claim a new 'first' today and the distinctions between a canoe designer, builder, and company manager can be a bit vague. A number of women have held these roles over the years including: May MInto, Maggie Jean Chestnut, Pam Wedd, Annie Harris, and others. Many of their open canoe designs have been regularly used in whitewater even if that wasn't their primary purpose.

Benson is focused, not unexpectedly, on women who have designed, manufactured or influenced wood/canvas canoes. And, of course, any canoe "can" be run in whitewater. However, there has been an evolution since the age of composite and plastic canoe fabrication toward radical asymmetries for dedicated whitewater canoes (and various racing canoes) that simply cannot be replicated by wooden rib/plank construction. For paddlers who value high performance, efficiency and safety in difficult whitewater as a day paddling sport—especially in short solo boats—none of them paddles wood/canvas open canoes. The designs are quite different from flatwater tripping canoes.

That said, I have no idea (adjectively) whether Sabrina Barm was historically "first" in anything as Conor Mihell claims in the Paddling Magazine article—other than being the first female canoe designer for Esquif. Moreover, the history of female influences in canoe design and manufacture would certainly be an interesting study. Here's a short video on May Minto, whom Benson mentions:

Further on the subject of female influences on canoe design, rare historical documents possessed only by yours truly prove that Jan Palmer had signficant influences on John Berry's climactic whitewater canoe, The Hooker, fully unclothed in this post:

Bio of John Berry, his risqué humor, and "The Hooker"

John Berry was a whitewater mentor, letter correspondent and friend of mine in the 1980's. I recently rediscovered some letters from him from that era, and thought I would share a biographical tribute to him, his canoes, and his risqué humor in three posts. First, some straight biography...

www.canoetripping.net

 

[tketcham]

Wonder what purpose the flat back serves.

Might be as simple as a way to lean/stand the canoe up on end for storage.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I'll make a stab at the reason for the square stern.

It would increase the maneuverability of the hull, making quick turns easier, especially for the smaller paddler.
I'd also guess there would only be a small amount of lost flotation.

Jim

 

[Nick Pending]

I'll make a stab at the reason for the square stern.

It would increase the maneuverability of the hull, making quick turns easier, especially for the smaller paddler.
I'd also guess there would only be a small amount of lost flotation.

Jim

I seem to remember a kayak design I think back in the '70s that utilized a chopped off stern like that, and my faulty memory calls it something like the Hall effect. I can only find Hall effect via Google to refer to electrical and magnetic physics rather than nautical or hydraulic physics, though, so it's likely some other name I'm misremembering. In any case the kayak was made by one of the regular well-known composite manufacturers like maybe Old Town as I think it was meant for wildwater/downriver racing, not playboating. With my memory it could have been sprint, but that's unlikely as that wasn't a portion of the sport that I followed at the time. I also tried searching for terms like "flat stern kayak" or canoe, and all I could find were square sterns in sit-on-top kayaks and also in canoes meant for outboard motor attachment, but it wasn't by any means an exhaustive search. Benson with his stack of old catalogs might be able to scare it up. I'm sure it existed, but was likely short lived as a naval architectural design as few if any others copied the design and it didn't seem to catch on. Likely just an advertising/promo gimmick? Maybe this is an attempt at reintroduction? Esquifs are heavy boats, so maybe she just chopped off some of the weight? I'm facetiously joking with that last statement.

 

[Benson Gray]

Benson with his stack of old catalogs might be able to scare it up.

I don't recall any square sterned kayaks from that era. The Old Town catalogs below from 1972 and 1980 don't show one.

Benson

 

[Nick Pending]

Thanks, Benson.

It was obviously not Old Town. They were just the only name I could come up with who made boats like that at that time. The boat I was thinking of would be of the style like the Prijon Dolphin on the second page, essentially a flatwater sprint looking boat that was modified for straight ahead whitewater downriver racing (and had the stern chopped flat, but maybe only 3-4 inches across?). My mind playing Senior Citizen trick on my these days? Thanks again.