Category:Sailing

Maiken Bagley is Head of the Viking Sailing Guild. It is the purpose of the Vikings Sailing Guild to enhance the skills and experience of sailing in Viking Vessels and to arrange sailing events for its members in Britain and abroad. We wish to encourage the membership of the Vikings to share information about sailing to enrich and embellish our hobby, and further our understanding of the Viking age. Guild members are expected to work towards increasing knowledge of sailing, seafaring, boat-building, ship maintenance and related crafts and skills of our period within The Vikings.

The Viking Sailing Guild

The Vikings Sailing Guild is a Sailing Department within the Society, which aims to promote greater understanding of sailing within the Viking age. The Sailing Guild works to arrange sailing experiences for members of The Vikings aboard replica Viking ships at Roskilde Viking Ship Museum and elsewhere, to help members of The Vikings learn to crew authentic ships and further our understanding and practical knowledge of ship building, maintenance and sailing.

All members of The Vikings are invited to attend our events. Members of the Vikings may be awarded Drengr points for their attendance and participation in events arranged by the Viking’s Sailing Guild. Guild members are expected to work towards furthering knowledge of sailing, seafaring, boat-building, ship maintenance and related crafts and skills of our period within The Vikings. The Guild aims to communicate with the membership of The Vikings through the forum of the Runestaff or Facebook, and may, from time to time, arrange a lecture or talk on a sailing related topic for The Vikings general membership.

Sailing Skills and Crafts

The construction and sailing of a Viking warship requires skills developed over generations, the application of which would be familiar to everyone living in the Viking age. We aim to pass knowledge of these crafts to everyone in the Society. Here are examples of some of the activities that we have been involved with.

Ship Building. The oak planks are shaped using replicas of the original tools (mainly axes).

Once the planks are all shaped and shaven they are riveted onto the boat.

Rope Making. The rope making house on Roskilde boatyard.

Wood Carving. The figure heads for the Viking ships are carved out of oak using replicas of the original tools.

Steering the Ship. Steering using the steering board takes an experienced hand.

The Helge Ask

The Helge Ask is a warship, albeit a small one, and it is probably the most beautiful one to be seen in Danish waters. Fully painted in bright colours, and with dragon´s head and tail mounted, it gives a very vivid impression of the colourful past.

The decoration is fully authentic. As always, the aim of the Viking Ship Museum has been to get as close to the original as possible in the working process as well in the ship itself, and the Vikings were certainly very fond of colours and illustrations.