Viking boat

Text: Marit Synnøve Vea

Holmrygr has five pairs of oars, oarlocks, floorboards, thwarts and rudder. (Photo Sverre Bakkevik)

Holmrygr has five pairs of oars, oarlocks, floorboards, thwarts and rudder. (Photo Sverre Bakkevik)

THE VIKING BOAT “HOLMRYGR”
Holmrygr is a reconstruction of the largest boat found together with the Gokstad ship. The boat is 9.75 metres long and 1,85 metres wide.

The boat are named after the people that lived on the islands of Rogaland, they were called holmrygr. (The rygr of the island)

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BOAT
Holmen, a school for teenagers, built the boat together with the boat builder Harald Sørensen. The Viking boat was launched during the Viking Festival in June 1996. It was then drawn on “lunnar” – planks – from Holmen school and down to the sea.

The school used one year to plan the reconstruction and to get hold of the proper building materials. Some of the timber could be bought from the planing mill, but the raw material that they should use for stem and stern and for the frame, was found in the forest in Vindafjord. When the raw material was brought home, it had to be dried slowly to prevent cracks.

We got the drawings of the

We got the drawings of the “Gokstad-boat” from the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

Holmrygr was launched in June 1996. (Photo Marit Synnøve Vea)

Holmrygr was launched in June 1996. (Photo Marit Synnøve Vea)

All of the boat, except the gunwale, is of oak. Totally the boat has six lengths of planking.

The boat has the same design as a larger Viking ship. The two first lengths of the planking are curved sharply upwards and almost go to the top of the stem and stern. The next three lengths of planking then almost start at zero in each end of the boat.

 

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