There are more than 30 boats in the Viking Ship Museum’s harbour and they are presented to museum’s visitors during the summer and winter. However, at present the boats are on land around the Yard and in front of the Viking Ship Hall. So, what could be more natural than to use the cold and dark winter season to get closer to the museum’s boat collection?

Boats from more than 1,000 years – now on the internet.

The museum has therefore today opened an on-line version of the living boat collection. You can now study the individual boats in text, film and pictures on the museum’s homepage. The boat collection is very broadly representative, but naturally the emphasis is on the five reconstructions of the Skuldelev ships; Roar Ege, Helge Ask, Kraka Fyr, Ottar and the Sea Stallion from Glendalough.

However, you will also find more modern boats such as the Lynæs dinghy from 1960 and the pound-net dinghy, Tine, from 1980.

“All of the boats tell their own unique story, but together they represent Nordic boat-building over more than 1,000 years and it is fantastic to see how little the basic principles have changed”, explains the head of the museum’s boatyard, Søren Nielsen, who has the daily responsibility for the maintenance of the boats in cooperation with the boat-builders.

The King’s ice boat

Very few people realise that King Christian X could sail ice boats. The ice boat in which he learned to sail is also a part of the collection at the museum. XLNT (or Excellent, as it is called) was built in Sweden in 1905.

There are therefore many small stories to be told about the various boats. The Nordland boat, Rana, is the oldest boat in the collection and was built in 1892. The boat represents the end of an era where the open, square sailed boat was used for winter fishing in northern Norway, right up to the period around World War I.

Boats in use

Practically all of the boats are actively sailed during the sailing season from May until October, either through the museum’s sailing service, which sails with schools, businesses, private firms and tourists in connection with visits to the museum. However, there is also a voluntary boat society that keeps the boats alive by sailing them in the evenings on the fjords and on longer summer voyages.

Now you have the opportunity to get closer! Welcome inside!

» Visit the online Boat Collection (in Danish)...

» Try our boats for real - take a trip on the Fjord...

» Go to the Boatyard's building list (in Danish)...

» Read about the museum's boat guilds...