Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Clinker built Viking ship DRAGON HARALD FAIRHAIR

Dragon Harald Fairhair: The construction of a Viking DragonShip


I was unaware that the Norwegians had actually built one of these and had really got it right as well.  a lot of good questions got answered herel.   This one was crafted inside of two years.  Watch all the videos in this post.

It was also build as large as likely ever built as well.  Now i want to see this scaled back to a more practical size, not least because this size comes in at 70 tons.  60 foot length and a 15 foot beam should get us down to under twenty tons.  Assume ten pairs of oars for a crew of forty or so.

This was surely typical of the usual long ship of the vikings.

Better yet it is light enough that sledging it becomes plausible.  Thinner planks would make a big difference there.

There is an excellent prospect for building a fleet of these smaller craft for sailing in Salish Sea between Vancouver and Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley which was the likely site of the original Vinland.  It is clearly no trick to provide  a decent motor to run these ship's and they are naturally fast in even heavy seas.

We often get a six foot seas and a good running wind which would make sailing these ships  a real pleasure.  Thus we have a new form of sport sailing.




Dragon Harald Fairhair: The construction of a Viking Dragon Ship


August 9, 2013 by Medievalists.net

Dragon Harald Fairhair: The construction of a Viking Dragon Ship

http://www.medievalists.net/2013/08/dragon-harald-fairhair-the-construction-of-a-viking-dragon-ship/

From Vikingkings.com: A ten-minute video on the construction of a Viking dragon ship, which began in 2010 and is the largest Viking ship ever built in modern times.

In March of 2010, construction began on what will be the largest Viking ship ever built in modern times. Named after Harald Fairhair, the king who unified Norway into one kingdom, the great dragon ship is coming together in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway.

The ship measures one hundred and fourteen feet of crafted oak, twenty-seven feet on the beam, displacing seventy tons, and has a thirty-two hundred square foot sail of pure silk.

The Dragon Harald Fairhair will have 25 pairs of oars. It is necessary to have at least two people on each oar to row the ship efficiently. That will give a crew of at least 100 persons, yet the craft should be able to be sailed by only twelve.


In June 2012, the Dragon Harald Fairhair was launched and tested for the first time. Here is the video:

This year the ship is undergoing more testing, and it is expected that its first voyage will occur in 2014. To learn more about this ship, please visit VikingKings.com or follow them on their Facebook group.
































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