Not your average weekend cruiser

Fancy a rather more original boat than the designs seen on lakes and dams, and along the coast, every weekend?  How about a replica of a genuine Viking longship?  The Local's Norwegian edition reports:

Fancy owning your own Viking ship capable of carrying an 80-strong landing party to ravage the destination of your choice? The craftsmen at The Viking Ship Museum are now selling replicas of Norway's Gokstad ship for a mere €160,000 [about US $211,000].

The construction of the 10-metre [33 feet] long Gokstad battle cruiser is scrupulously authentic, with the Roskilde-based craftsmen hewing each model out of oak using tradition tools, putting it together with handmade nails, and equipping it with woollen sails.

But the design has nonetheless proven extremely seaworthy since the first replica, the Viking, crossed the Atlantic from Bergen in 1893.

The original boat was discovered in a burial mound near Sandefjord in 1880, and is now kept at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History outside Oslo.

There's more at the link.  If you'd like to buy a copy (or one of the other Viking ships there), see here for more information.

Here's an interview with the head of the Viking Ship Museum, showing details of the replica of the Sea Stallion of Glendalough, the second-largest Viking ship ever discovered.  It sailed from Denmark to Ireland and back last decade in a demonstration of Viking trade routes.  The interview's in Danish, of course, but has English subtitles.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode to see the details of the ship.

A hundred-foot longboat built with just axes, hammers, nails, rope, wool and leather . . . those Viking shipwrights knew their stuff!

Peter