CRUISING
APRIL 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 41T
he notorious Folkboat came
about after the Royal Gothenburg
Sailing Club and the Swedish
Sailing Association sponsored
a competition in 1940 to fi nd a
new design class that was a competitive
racer, yet roomy enough for a small
family to go cruising. Some 58 designs
were submitted, but none was considered
good enough overall. Instead, the job
of amalgamating the best ideas from
the top four contributors was given to
Swedish yacht designer Tord Sunden,
who went on to launch the result of this
blend of concepts, the Nordic Folkboat, in
Gothenburg on 23 April 1942.
The original boat, frequently described
as minimalist even in its heyday, and ‘one
for the purists’ in more recent times, had
a clinker-planked wooden hull with a full-
length keel, a raked transom and a simple
Bermudian sloop rig. Her very generous 54
percent ballast ratio resulted in her being
extremely stiff under sail and well able to
stand up to her canvas.
The Folkboat soon began to attract
the attention of long-distance racers and
adventurers for its seaworthiness and
modest cost. Probably the most famous
was pioneer Blondie Hasler’s junk-rigged Jester, which came second in the
1960 OSTAR (Observer Single-Handed
Transatlantic Race). She went on to
cross the Atlantic a further 14 times with
her new owner, Mike Richey, but was
eventually lost in a storm in
1988, though Richey survived.
Also in 1960, Rozelle Raines
singlehandedly sailed her
Folkboat Martha McGilda
to Russia and two years later
Adrian Hayter sailed Valkyr
single-handed from the UK to
New Zealand via Panama.
The Folkboat became a
very popular cruiser/racer
throughout northern Europe,
America and even Australia,
where they were built under
license, along with numerous
UK yards including Woodnutts, Lallows,
Bussel, Perrys, Burnes and Husbands.
The British version was most often built
in the carvel-plank fashion, giving her
a smoother and more watertight hull.
She also featured a longer coachroof,
which was raised at the after end for
better headroom below. All Folkboat
rigs remained identical, however, which
enabled them to compete equally against
each other in international races.
In 1967 Sunden introduced a GRP
version, which became known unoffi cially
as the International Folkboat, or more
commonly the IF-boat. Some also called
it the Marieholm Folkboat or Marieholm
26 after the yard in Sweden where some
3,488 were built over the next 17 years.
Among a plethora of daring voyages,Australian grandmother Ann Gash sailed a
plywood version around the world in 1977.
After telling her family she was just off for
a sail with friends, she embarked on a two-
and-a-half year solo circumnavigation.
Having no radio on board, her
fi rst communication with them
after setting sail was a postcard
from Christmas Island.
The design spawned a
variety of lookalikes, including
the Folksong, Contessa 26,
Varne 27, and the Stella 26,
and infl uenced the design of
countless more boats into the
1960s and 1970s. The most
prolifi c of these, the Rogers/
Sadler-designed Contessa 26,
was sailed solo around the
world in 1985 by 18 year-
old American sailor, Tania Aebi. There
remains to this day a huge number of
regularly raced fl eets throughout the
world, numbering some 4,000 boats. WTo read more about this
magnifi cent yacht, try:
■ The Folkboat Story,
by Dieter Loibner
(Sheridan House, 2002)
■ A Star to Steer Her By,
by Ann Gash (Angus
& Robertson, 1980)
■ Maiden Voyage, by Tania Aebi
(Simon & Schuster, 1989)Folkboat books
(Sheridan House, 2002)Folkboats: a brief history
At nearly 75 year old, the
Folkboat is as popular as ever,
both for cruising and racing.
Duncan Kent explains why ‘This boat is
extremely
stiff under
sail and
well able to
stand up to
her canvas’
Blondie Hasler sailed
Jester, a converted
Folkboat with a junk
rig, in the fi rst OSTAR
from Plymouth to
New YorkPHOTO: BOB AYLOTT. INSET: EILEEN RAMSAY/PPL
The Nordic Folkboat is a
one-design class. Wood
and GRP hulls are allowed