We are pleased to announce that Andy Wrate will be bringing the historic rowing and sailing boat Njordvegr to the Championships. Andy is the former Sailing Director of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy and has a longstanding interest in Norse small boats. His 22ft Ness Yole “Aluna Ivy”, traditionally built by Ian Best on Fair Isle, attracted admiring comments when she first appeared at Portsoy.
He has now acquired the historical replica of the Gokstad archaeological find “Njordvegr” which was built in Denmark in 2001 using building methods from 850 AD. Saws were not used at this time so the planks were carefully cleft from oak logs using axes and wedges.
This boat could be considered as the great great grandfather of the Fair Isle Skiffs which in turn are the model which Ian Oughtred used to design our St Ayles Skiffs. So for those interested in the ancestry and design of the double ended skiffs found all round Scotland and Scandinavia, this boat is absolutely fascinating. She has the authentic kabe rowlock system which will be closely studied by those of us who failed to make it work in St Ayles skiffs.
She is 31 ft long, and built of cleft oak planks fastened with 1000 hand forged iron clenched nails. Her sail is woven from wool, treated with beef tallow and wood tar, and her rigging is hemp, although she also has a historically accurate set of rigging made from lime bast (the inner layer of the bark of a lime tree) and horsehair. Horsehair rope has the useful property of running freely even when frozen, thus letting you release the sail in a winter squall. She carries a big pile of stones for ballast, although this might hold her back as a rowing boat!
She is very flexible and also very precious, so the process of unloading her from her trailer and loading her ballast is complicated and time consuming. Andy has described her as a sort of speedboat owned by a nobleman as a status symbol, the Ferrari of her time. I hope he has located good sources of beef tallow, wood tar and horsehair.
Andy and his crew will be taking her out on the water during the Championship and there may be crew places for lucky rowers who want to sample the 850AD rowing experience. If the weather is suitable we will have the pleasure of seeing her under her massive woollen sail, slicing along with minimal freeboard and a pile of stones on board. The stones are all rounded so that if she is overturned by a gust, they should fall out of her before she sinks to the bottom. You can see why lifejackets were invented.
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