THE NORDIC FOLKBOAT - A Potted History
26
I
f you sail in a Folkboat you are sailing
in one of the World’s truly iconic boats if
not one of the world’s most influential and
resolved designs of any kind. Many yacht
designs are inspired by the beautiful
Folkboat. It is said that a Folkboat looks
as good on the water as a Spitfire looks
in the sky. Designers say simply that a
Folkboat looks ‘right’ and ‘there’s nothing
wrong with her’. Neither the Folkboat or
the Spitfire look wrong from any angle.
It all started during the late 1930s and
early 1940s in Sweden, which had been
neutral during the Second World War.
Sweden had kept sailing going whilst
the rest of Europe was in turmoil. The
Swedish Sailing Association identified a
need for a new class of yacht which was
simple, affordable and had the potential
for mass production.
At that time, the popular Scandinavian
classes were the Dragon and five and six
metre yachts, but they were considered
too expensive to have mass appeal. The
Finns had the Haj and Sarklass A boats
and the Danes had the W boat whilst the
Norwegians had larger International One
Designs which were considered too big
and expensive to match the need the
Swedes had identified.
To obtain a better idea of the boats,
available internationally in 1939, the
Swedes sent sailing journalist Eric
Pallin to investigate by visiting several
European countries and he concluded
that it would be impossible to conceive
an affordable boat for the ‘folks’ which
would have worldwide appeal.
During the 1930s, Swedish yacht
clubs had regularly held annual design
competitions. The winning entry was
built at the relevant club’s expense by a
local yard and the boat was allocated to
the club member who had won the club’s
lottery.
