Zoetje - a Folkboat


Earlier this year a friend and I bought our first boat. She is called "Zoetje" a clinker built Folkboat. She was built in 1960 by Fa. G.A. Kroes & Zn of Campen in Holland and is constructed of mahogany on oak to a design by Tord Sunden. She is rigged as a 7/8 Bermudan sloop with an inboard auxiliary diesel on an inline shaft. "Zoetje" has a short cabin top, clear foredeck and a roomy after cockpit. Like most Folkboats she is 25 foot in length, beam of 7' 3" and a draught of 3' 11".

The idea for a Folkboat came about in 1939 from the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club in Sweden to encourage and promote sailing. The following year the Scandinavian Yacht Racing Union organised a competition to find a small, affordable and easily built yacht for racing or cruising. From the fifty-eight entries there were four winners. The details of these winning designs were passed to Tord Sunden, a Swedish navel architect, who was asked to review them and amalgamate the best features from each. The final design included clinker construction, a steeply raked transom and stem with a long straight keel. The first Nordic Folkboat was launched in 1942.

Since then many versions have been built ranging from the pure Nordic type to the carvel built family cruisers that have been developed in Britain. Folkboats have also been built in Holland, Poland and the former East Germany.

Folkboats are very good seaboats with a legendary pedigree underpinned by the exploits of Blondie Hasler and his junk rigged "Jester" which competed in the first Single-handed Transatlantic Race in 1960 and again in 1964. Since then "Jester" has made many other ocean crossings. Australian Ann Gash made a solo navigation in her Folkboat "Ilimo" between 1975 and 1977.

I can't say that I want to emulate these exploits but we are looking forward to a lot of fun in "Zoetje" our own Folkboat .

David Smith