Yards/Boats in Finland

[jake]

Hi
I havent posted for awhile, have been in Israel some time, but, leaving in 11 days for Turku, Finland, in the SE corner on the Baltic,

anyone know of any yards/harbors to check out to look at some good wooden sailing boats?

I will be there through Sept before heading back to the States,
jake

[Seppo]

Hi

Well, this is maybe the worst time to visit Finland for wooden boats - they are (or should be, I've seen couple of bad examples...) under cover, waiting a more clement weather for owners to really start working on them... but if you're staying the summer then you can see them in water too...

There are some wooden boat builders around the coast but they are sort of scattered... best concentration is around Kotka in the eastern part of the 'Finnish Bay' (that's probably not the right translation but can't just now remember the proper one...).

If you're visiting Helsinki from 8th of Feb - up to a week there's the 'International Boat Show' in the 'Helsinki Fair Centre' - most of it of course gf things but there has been a part of it dedicated to wooden boats, boatbuilders etc. Last year there were quite a few beautiful restorations and new boats. A less than two hours train trip from Turku, the Fair centre is near the Pasila rw station. They have a web site, let's see... http://www.finnboat.fi/en/messut.html should be in English.

Also if you like to see a working historical shipyard, there's one at Suomenlinna (Sveaborg in swedish...) where are currently more than a dozen wooden traditional ships under different stage of repair; on the islands is also one boatbuilder who builds really fine boats.

So I would really recommend to visit the fair, if it fits your timetable.

BR
Seppo

[ 02-04-2003, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Seppo ]