Shetland Boat Week Compilation

For folk that like traditional wooden boats, Shetland Boat Week is a fantastic event, and a great opportunity to get out on the water and experience sailing or rowing in Shetland’s traditional craft.

I thought I would compile an extended clip of Shetland Boat Week footage that would give a bit more time to watch the boats sailing, and feel a bit more like a Shetland version of slow TV. However it does liven up with the wind speed. You can read below about some of the boats featured and the Shetland Boat Week event.

The film opens with the one day that there wasn't much wind for sailing. Brian Chapman was at the event with a great display of Seagull Outboards and gives us a listen to one. Then we are aboard the 16ft’ 3” Shetland maid class boat ‘Vaisala’ rigged with a standing lug 85sq ft. There's a clip of us sailing off to the eela, (inshore fishing). Vaisala in her day was a very successful racing boat taking part in the Shetland regattas and was rigged with up to 190 sq ft of sail, unballasted, and three aboard (Skipper, middle man and jib). On this night though it was much more relaxed with the standing lug, easy to lower while fishing and hoist again to try another mead. We caught a good fry of mackerel and piltocks for the BBQ.

There's examples of 'Shetland Model' class boats being rowed, hauled up on the beach and at moorings. The haddock boat ‘Laura Kay’ is being rowed out of the dock. After the eela competition we had a fine tune in the boat shed at Hay's Dock. The next scene is the Shetland Ness Yoal ‘Jeannie’ under sail, along with the sixareen 'Far Haaf'. 'Jeannie' was built in 1904 as a fishing boat with 120 sq ft of sail.

We then have the Unst sixareen 'Far Haaf', filmed from the sixareen "Vaila Mae". It is thought to be the first time in living memory that there had been two sixareens sailing on the water at the same time. It was definitely a real highlight of Shetland Boat Week, that provided a spectacle for all.

The skipper of the ‘Far Haaf’, Willie Mouat, had organised to get the sixareen back in the water and bring her down from Unst for Shetland Boat Week. Willie built the ‘Far Haaf’ along with Fair Isle boat builder Ian Best in 1992/1993. It was great to have Willie Mouat and his Unst crew about for the whole week and share their sailing experience with everyone. The Unst Heritage Trust and Shetland Ex-Whalers Association supported bringing the ‘Far Haaf’ to the event and helped make it happen.

A comparison of the sixareen sails, the more peaked white sail (240 sq ft) of the ‘Vaila Mae’ is based on a sailing rig from the westside of Shetland. The ‘Far Haaf’ is from Unst in the North Isles of Shetland and has the slightly lower peak, and more square sail. Both boats perform very well under sail.

Shetland Boat Week 2019 ran trips aboard the sixareens ‘Far Haaf’ and ‘Vaila Mae’ every day of the event, all were fully booked. Good sailing winds prevailed to give passengers a feel for how the sixareen handles under sail but also a chance to try some rowing. The boats are sailed by experienced volunteer skippers, and volunteer crew that they have trained up over the summer seasons. It is worth adding that before each sailing season boat builders of the 'Vaila Mae', Jack Duncan and Robbie Tait have made her ready for sea and have voluntarily carried out any maintenance required on her, and this is greatly appreciated by all. They also secure the boat on the beach for the winter.

We conclude with a flavour of some of these Shetland Boat Week sailing trips in the harbour. The Swan LK243 can be seen here in Bressay Sound. She is a restored herring fishing boat that was built at Hay’s yard, Lerwick in 1900. Owned by the Swan Trust she does sail training and charters. You can find her full story or book a trip on this site. https://www.swantrust.co.uk

The sixareen class of boat has played such an important role in Shetland’s maritime history. A great blog by Alastair Hamilton provides an insight to Shetland’s traditional boats. https://www.shetland.org/blog/shetlan...

The sixareen ‘Vaila Mae’ is owned by the Shetland Museum and is sailed regularly from Hay’s Dock in Lerwick. The ‘Far Haaf’ can be seen at the superb Unst Boathaven.
http://www.unstheritage.com/web/unst-...

Tunes in the music session
Sleep Soond in da Morning - Trad
Willafjord - Trad
Spootiskerry - Ian Burns
Laxo Burn - Arthur Scott Robertson

Music in the last section is played by Haltadans, recorded at a concert in the Fetlar Hall 2019.
Tunes:
Heoganeap - Maurice Henderson
Spreefix- Ewen Thomson’s
Reel Sisimiut - Maurice Henderson
https://www.haltadans.com
https://open.spotify.com/track/21uFeJ...

Filmed on DJI Osmo Pocket and DSLR from the shore by Maurice Henderson and Gordon Henderson.