Events

Modeled after the Viking Longboats of Lief Erickson’s time we might well call these the Viking Shortboats. Each year in September The Sons of Norway host a days fun including fellowship, BBQ, Boating and races. The races always bring out many of us who admire the Viking spirit but who trace our ancestors more to the Viking’s victims. Each boat is a little different. From four oars to eight oars they all carry one somewhat square rigged mainsail. They come from all over the State of Florida. Each race has two rowing legs and two sailing legs, and they may not row when the sail is up. That appears to be a very good rule as rowing all four legs might produce many coronaries as the crews do not seem to be in Olympic condition although the crews I spoke to said that they all practice at least once or twice a year. The boats are all constructed of Norwegian Ironwood which I later was informed is called fiberglass in this country. These are very friendly Vikings and everyone had a wonderful time. Except the team in the picture below. They were dismasted on the third leg after looking like sure winners. The top boat I believe was the group from Jacksonville. You can see the left boat has no mast. It is in the water on the far side of the boat. The sail is also in the water and they cannot row the boat until they recover the mast and sail as the sail acts like a big sea anchor.