Naddoddur (boat)
Naddoddur is a so-called seksæringur , a Faroe boat with 12 rowers, which makes spectacular trips from the Faroe Islands to Norway , the Shetland Islands and Iceland .
The boat is named after the discoverer of Iceland ( 850 ), the Norwegian-born Faroese Naddoddur , who may later also discovered North America. Home port is Tvøroyri on Suðuroy , where it was launched on May 31, 1997 . It is the largest classic Faroe boat since 1900.
prehistory
In Tvøroyri there is a club of the same name ( Bátafelagið Naddoddur - "Boat Club Naddoddur"), which aims to maintain the old Faroese boat building culture . It was founded on November 19, 1995 and has around 120 members.
The prehistory goes back to 1992 , when two Faroe boats, a 10 and a 12, together with the crew from Båtlauget Kysten, the central organization of boat owners in Norway, were invited to a wooden boat meeting in Kolbeinshamn .
These boats aroused particular interest, especially since on the one hand they descended directly from the Viking ship - that is, Norwegian boats - but are no longer built in Norway today. In addition to the classic, elegant design, the seaworthiness of the rowing boats attracted particular attention.
Because of this enthusiasm in Norway, Kysten organized a trip to the Faroe Islands in 1993 , which was attended by around 100 interested people. There they heard in Tvøroyri about the plans to build the largest Seksæringur in 100 years. A Norwegian association immediately agreed to donate the wood they needed - a gesture of particular importance, as there is no forest on the Faroe Islands, and driftwood from Norway and Canada have always been waited for, or wooden boards had to be bought at a high price.
After the wood was felled in Norway and stored for a while, it came to Tvøroyri in the spring of 1996 . In autumn of that year, the boat builder Jóhan Olsen and his 82-year-old father Niclas Olsen got to work. On May 31, 1997 the time had come: Hundreds of onlookers (i.e. half the town) flocked to the water when the boat was launched and, according to old traditions, was also baptized - in the name of Naddoddur , which every schoolchild on the Faroe Islands knows .
Naddoddur undertook his maiden voyage with a crew of 14 - 12 rowers, a helmsman and a navigator. The boat shed was donated by a local shipowner.
On a long journey
In the same year, eight crew members set out for Norway, only with oars and sails. In view of the historic name, Norway was chosen as the first destination, the birthplace of the great navigator and Viking Naddoddur. After three and a half days and 360 nautical miles they reached Florø on the west coast of Norway by open boat , where they were greeted by a large number of boats.
The actual goal was the 1000th anniversary of the city of Trondheim . A favorable easterly wind made it possible to sail home to the Faroe Islands with only 3 men, while the other 5 drove home with the Norröna .
The second trip should take place in 1998 to Reyðarfjörður in Iceland, the place where Naddoddur went ashore for the first time. This time the four sailed under the skipper Ernst Emielsson Petersen. However, there was a lull, and so the four decided to row the 12, because an old Faroese proverb says:
- Hann fær byr, ið bíðar, og havn, ið rør.
In German:
- Whoever waits gets a tailwind; and whoever rowed, reached the harbor.
This involuntary rowing trip, the entire 240 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands to Iceland, lasted four days. They were greeted by Icelandic helicopters and airplanes far from the coast.
The reception on land was accordingly met with great media interest and crowds . The team presented the mayor of the city with a plaque that reads "Naddoddur, the Faroese Viking 850-1998".
The return journey of the boat and crew was then on board the Norröna.
Later it was considered to dare to cross the Atlantic to America, but so far nothing has come of it. Instead, they visited the neighbors in the Shetland Islands.
Web links
- Naddoddur.com (homepage in Faroese and partly in English)