The journey begins

Where the Vikings sought new lands, we seek new knowledge.
Tinna Damgård-Sørensen, Director, 2006

When we sail a new reconstruction for the first time, we have to rediscover a technique more than 1,000 years old. No modern human being possess the same basis of experience that the Vikings had, neither on land nor at sea. But the boatbuilder's sense of materials, form and aesthetics, and the sailor's desire to know his ship, can be found in the sagas, skaldic poems and, in particularm the five Skuldelev ship finds.

We learn more about the people and the culture of the Viking Age by testing the reconstructed ships under realistic conditions and by sailing with the same seriouness and dedication as the Vikings did.

In our sailing research, we distinguish between trial voyages and sea trials. The two forms of experiment each have a specific focus and give different results.
On trial voyages, we examine the ship's seaworthiness, manoeuvrability, speed, and the performance of the crew. The skipper and mate register a ship's travel speed from A to B, and the crew tries out various sleeping arrangements, the storage of supplies, night communications and organisation on board.
In sea trials, we test a ship's sailing abilities under various wind and weather conditions. The crew investigate a ship's ability to beat to windward, to tack and veer, and what it is like to row and hoist and lower the mast. The trials are repeated several times under varying conditions in order to obtain an average result.

The experiments illustrate the importance of a Viking ship's loading capacity and the sailing capabilities that were needed to facilitate transport and communication in Viking Age society. They give us a glimpse of the possibilities and limitations that a merchant or a warship commander faced 1,000 years ago.