My time with Nordkaperen

When I first in 1956 left Greenland to reside permanently in Denmark, I did miss something to use my energy on. I took a license as an aircraft pilot , but even if it was an old dream which came true, it was not quite what I had expected.

Another old dream was to get something to sail in. I did knew the sailboat Nordkaperen from my visits to the ports, and one day in the spring of 1957 it was for sale. I thought it was a beautiful vessel, and could not stand the temptation, and I bought the vessel as it lay in port. That was the start of a work which required great patience and a good purse.

I got the vessel ashore on one of the smaller yards in skudehavnen. So I removed everything that was in the hull, had replaced some plates at the bottom, and put a new deck on made of steel plate. It was quite tight, and it was a great advantage because the plates which had to be replaced was actually corroded from inside, because of water which had leaked down through the deck. In the meantime I had found out, that on a yard south of Fyn was a used rigging which matched Nordkaperen. This rigging was replacing the old one, but the vessel had first to be towed to the yard behind "Provinspaketten",  a small freight boat, and then I could sail back to Copenhagen on my first trip in own boat, three years after I had taken over the vessel.

Now Nordkaperen emerged as a healthy vessel, with good sails, masts, booms and a new rigging made on good old-fashioned maner. Then we could begin to sail, for it had to be a we. Nordkaperen was not a vessel you could just make a tour alone. I had indeed formed a family now, and I could just manage to hoist the 60 kvdr.m large mainsail while my wife held the vessel up to the wind, but then were the forces also used up. It was therefore necessary with good friends help when we were out sailing, if it was not just struggle and hardship.

Eventually, it was too much. I had to make the vessel ready in spring, and I was usually not ready for launch before June. I started to look after a buyer, and one day was Troels Kloevedal and his friends there. They would like to have a vessel which could go on long journys, the sale was in order, and after 10 years, I could again relax for a time, but not for long, as the family and a newly acquired house required time, especially when I began to build more to get the place for the workshop I had always wanted. But read more about this in the next section.

And Nordkaperen. Yes, Troels Kloevedal and his friends showed the right spirit and led Nordkaperen out in the deep waters where it belonged to. I do not need to tell about that, because that provides Troels through his books and articles.

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Edited february 27 2009