Viking Navy


This is my current thinking about Viking Sails.



I always wondered why the Viking stayed with their double pointed boats. Now here is an idea of how the Vikings could have made a more agile boat... a boat and sail system that could sail in reverse as well as forward. It makes for very fast direction changes. This video is playing at eight times normal speed so the action is easier to see. The wind was very light at the pond the day of this test. But it looks like the Vikings could reverse directions in three seconds, that in half the time modern sail boats tack.

It always seemed like the Vikings must have been able to sail upwind. If they used many diamond sails like the two I have on this model, they would have been able to sail upwind.


Build your own RC model with two diamond sails. as of 2018

The Viking Navy now has a page on Facebook. Click here to connect with the Viking Navy on Facebook.

The Viking Navy now has a page on Twitter. Click here to see the Viking Navy on Twitter.

I will start to tweet when I am taking one of my RC Viking ships to Laguna Lake in Fullerton, Ca USA or to Huntington Beach (Life Guard tower #2). The tweet I just posted has a photo of the sails I plan to mount on a boogy board and sail in the surf. Should be fun to see it smashed.

Tweet of 2014 to see the Viking Navy on Twitter.

The Viking Navy designs, builds and sails Viking Ships. Formed in 1995 for people that would like to do a little Viking.
The Oseberg Viking Ship, pictured here, has been called the most beautiful ship ever built. A future goal of the Viking Navy is to build an Oseberg replica.


2011 PHOTO BOOK. Order online for $35.18... How to rig a Viking Ship to be self righting
The book as a web page... Selfrighting Viking Ship design


2012 Update... The Viking rudder is very small, thus I figured they steered with their sails. This movie shows a working model of a Viking ship doing a tack with just the sails.
A 48sec movie of my Viking Diamond Sails Tacking


PHOTOS
ART
MUSEUM
VINLAND

A Viking Ship rigging design by Peter Sjolander of Fullerton California in 1986
open questions

Viking Navy Store A T-shirt, a calendar and a model ship for sale.
A Vinland Project. A possible TV production.
Plans for a Viking ship.


GOOD NEWS FROM NORWAY 2010
In collaboration with the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, the New Oseberg Ship Foundation is building a full scale replica of the Oseberg Viking Ship. To be completed in 2011. Tønsberg will once again have its own Viking ship.
Search of Viking Navy:

Viking Navy research

The Viking Navy will always strive to make Viking ships perform as well today as they did 1000 years ago. To that end various experimental rigging ideas are pictured here.

In 1972 I saw a Viking Ship for the first time. The hull was such a work of art. I couldn't believe that sailors capable of building such a fine hull would be satisfied with square sails. The ideas expressed here are the results of a twenty year search for the lost art of Viking rigging and sailing.
The lost art of Viking rigging A 2000 word essay.
When I saw that the rudder was shaped like an airplane wing I set out to find the lost art of Viking rigging and sailing... lift.
Table of contents. rudder shields Oil oars-as-outrigger P Oar Sails P Ship cover P Mast Two Sails P 256 Diamond sails P P S Sailing blind Navigation Viking Watch P P snow Sailing

Longitude at landfall How the Viking could calculate where they were once they landed. The sun speed at each Latitude is different also. See the table for a latitude by sun speed.

Some sketches of rigging ideas. The control rope are not shown. Each row of sails can be controlled as a group. Note that the blue wing tips are attached to each other, but are not attached to the red sails. The red wing tips, on the other hand, are attached to the leading point of the blue sails. Rigging ropes come in sets of three.
1. Red nose to red tail the whole row and down to the stem and stern.
2. Blue wing tips attached and the whole row and down to the stem and stern.
3. Blue tail, blue nose, red wing tips all attached and the whole row and down to the stem and stern.

Here is a picture of these sails with their rigging ropes. Also a good description of how to sail a Viking Navy rigged ship. Viking Navy sail with control lines. Specification for Viking Navy sail shown. Small line drawings. Specification for Viking Navy Watch. Small line drawing. Specification for Viking Navy Sun Compass. Small black and white line drawing. The oar sails allow the Viking Navy ship to skip down the face of a swell.
More about these and other ideas

Ingemar Ahlenius of Sweden is testing another design for Viking Sails.

Trifoiler

Was at http://www.paw.com/Sail/hobie/trifoiler.html Hobie now makes a 35 MPH sailing boat, designed by Greg Ketterman, that looks to me like the great grandson of the Viking Navy Dragon. Two sails. Oars that stick out on the side.

Two sailors of the Viking Navy have Viking boats.

There are Viking ships in the world that go on trips.


Peter's Summer of 1999 in Sweden

Some comments and pictures of my visit to the Viking Reservation in Sweden.

I Sailed on a Viking ship.

Some comments and pictures of my summer of 2000.


Other Viking ideas

Viking visits in Vinland (America)

L'Anse aux Meadows Some comments on my visit.

Viking Rune stones in Vinland (America)

My different translation of the Kensington Rune stone
Short 400 word essay. I was never satisfied with the translation of this Rune stone. So I translated it myself. One of the key lines read "We have our lodge between two nude mountain ranges." That got me to thinking.

copy of the Kensington Rune stone Large sketch.
Kensington Rune-smith My current working translation of the K stone. Good rune graphics.
copy of Viking Rune article from Spokane Washington Large picture of a newspaper page.
copy of the Spirit pond Rune stone Large picture of the actual stone.
Copy of Roseau Rune stone Large picture. Very hard to make out.


Other Viking links.


GAIA Viking ship home page.
Was at http://hotel.telemuseum.se/sigtunamuseer/sigt.aif.eng.html Aifur modern Viking ship.
Building Viking boats in Sweden
Rune Stone (Oklahoma) Shield boss
Kensington Runesmith



Summer 2005 - Two designs in the works

Selfrighting Viking Ship design.
Splitdiamond Sail design for fast Sailing Viking Ships.


Peter Sjolander
Fullerton, Ca. USA 92833

© Viking Navy, Fullerton Ca. USA 2000