A High School for Boatbuilders

SWEDEN’S STENSUND FOLKHOGSKOLA

BY DREW LANGSNER

As director of Country Workshops, a small crafts school focused on traditional woodworking, I have enjoyed organizing an annual international craft tour. Since 1991, we have visited Sweden, England, Switzerland, and Japan. I organize each tour with someone well versed in the regional crafts and local culture of the country we visit. During these tours, we take a small group off the beaten path to meet skilled craftspeople. Although we mainly visit woodworkers, we also see artisans such as potters, blacksmiths, and basket makers. We stay in B&B’s, church conference centers, and local pensions. When we repeat a tour, we build on the best of previous tours by adding exciting new visits to our itinerary. Through these tours I have developed outstanding contacts and enduring friendships.

I’m interested in the construction of traditional wooden boats, so I am always looking for boatbuilding schools. I have found several in Sweden, where Jogge Sundqvist and I have led five craft tours. One of the most interesting schools is Stensund Folkhogskola, loosely translated as Stensund Folk High School.

‘High school’ in this context is nothing like the American institution with the same name. These Folk High Schools in Scandinavia were started in the late 1800s as places for rural adults to learn practical new skills, such as advanced farming methods and crafts that would potentially provide income during the winter months. Folk high schools started in Sweden, but soon spread to Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

During the 20th century, these typically residential schools evolved to include courses unrelated to crafts or farming. For instance, in addition to the traditional boat-building program, Stensund has courses in social services such as drug abuse counseling, preparation for the Swedish Police Academy, and outdoor education. Students can be any age, though most are young adults. Although tuition is free—even for foreigners—students must live on campus and pay room and board. Enrollment for a one-year course begins in August and ends in May. At some schools, including Stensund’s boatbuilding school, students can return for a second year of advanced study. All courses are in Swedish, so language emersion is part of the experience.

In addition to teaching specific subjects, the folk high schools share a holistic teaching philosophy. They view students both as individuals and members of society; they offer both hands-on and academic programs. Students share meals, workdays, and maintenance of buildings and grounds. All students live on campus during the class week. There is no formal final exam or degree awarded at the completion of these programs.

Learning by doing is the basis of each course. Sloyd, the magic word borne of this educational movement, means not only skilled mechanical work such as boatbuilding, but also refers to the mental and physical development that learning such a craft encourages. Preben Moller, Stensund’s master boatbuilder and teacher (1), explains, “The most central goal is that each student will have a good life. The boatbuilding is secondary.” But then he adds, “Of course if a student becomes a boatbuilder I will be very happy.”

Stensund is located about an hour south of Stockholm on an old estate built by a wealthy businessman in the early 20th century. The main structure (2), an impressive formal mansion, offers a stunning view of the Swedish archipelago (3). Several small docks with wooden boats made by the students line the shore (4), where a wood-fired sauna house sits on the narrowest possible rocky peninsula—inviting the brave to dip directly into the cold Baltic Sea.

This coastline is a wondrous archipelago with thousands of low islands rising from shallow waters. Because the entrance to the Baltic Sea between Denmark and the southeastern tip of Sweden is narrow, this body of water has scant tides. Prevailing winds stir the only waves, resulting in placid water during periods of calm weather. Myriad islands, some forested, others bare—and all very rocky—dot the waters. Wild swans swim among the many boats, including wooden sailboats, which line the town marinas at small private docks.

A museum housing the school’s collection of old wooden boats sits on the shore (5). Getting boats for the collection is easy—almost every week someone calls the school with an old boat to donate. Until recently, boats and boatbuilding played a large role in the economy and social life of this area since well before Viking times, as both professionals and farmers made boats. These mainly small craft were typically open, with no deck, cabin, or enclosed hold. Most were rowed, although some had modest sailing rigs.

The real action at Stensund happens in the boatbuilding shop, where several boats lie in various stages of completion (6). These boats are based on designs from the 1800s through the early 1900s, although they share characteristics of much older craft, dating to Viking watercraft. The designs, which evolved over centuries, are a perfect expression of form following function. The beautiful, fluid lines of a wooden boat are the result of what one can make with wooden planks and very basic hand tools. Almost all are lapstrake construction—overlapped horizontal planking riveted to naturally curved vertical wooden frames. These boats are mostly made from local pine and oak timbers. In the recent past, it was common to use homegrown flax for sails and locally produced ropes and hardware. These small boats, ranging from about eight to twenty feet, are protected with a tar and flaxseed oil finish. Some of the second year students work on restoration projects such as rebuilding the small engines in these boats.

Fifty-seven year old Moller gives the immediate impression of someone wholly dedicated to his work (7). He made his first boat when he was just fourteen years old. Before coming to teach at Stensund, he taught woodworking for eight years at a Waldorf school in nearby Jarna. He was invited to start the woodworking program at Stensund in 1993 and he embodies the folk school tradition. “I must also develop in order to see my students grow, to be so engaged that I’m here the first thing every morning. Teaching is learning,” he insists.

Moller’s students come from many backgrounds. He explains that, “Many cooks have come to the boat shop. Food must be beautiful. You have to think about the ingredients. Boatbuilding is the same.” He goes on to say that his students could be “artists, computer people, drug addicts, nice girls from high school, carpenters, anyone.” Although most of his students are young, Moller observes, “The older students appreciate everything and work the hardest.” Sixteen students are accepted for each school year; those wanting to attend a second year are accepted first.

Since Stensund sits at the same latitude as southern Greenland, Moller tells how the program is closely linked to the seasons of the far north. The group first assembles in mid-August for a ten day sailing and camping trip. At this time, everyone gets acquainted and learns to work as a team. At 6:30 a.m., the group wakes to clean camp and prepare breakfast. Boating takes up most of the daylight hours. Every night, two students take a full hour to tell their life stories.

After the camping trip, the days quickly get darker and colder. (I’ve been lucky to visit Sweden three times in October and each time enjoyed warm, sunny days.) The students are divided into teams of three; each team will make a small boat from start to finish. After studying plans, key construction details are lofted (drawn) full size on the shop floor. Lofting is very important in boatbuilding because almost every component of the boat is curved, with varying angled sides or ends. Accurate measurements come only from the full-scale drawings. Molds, which represent the cross-section of the boat at various stations along the length, are taken from the lofting and made of inexpensive plywood.

Boatbuilders usually make each component and attach it to the structure as work progresses; the boat takes shape throughout this process. This is unlike other kinds of woodworking, where woodworkers make many parts and then fit them together in a single session. Construction begins by building the keel, bow stem, and transom (8). This is by far the most difficult part of a wooden boat to make, and it has to be well done. The rabbet (a two-sided groove of continually varying angles) accepts the planking on each side of the stem and keel (9).

When this backbone is complete, the molds are carefully tacked into place using thin longitudinal strips (10). Next the planking, which begins at the keel and works upwards to the gunnels (the rim of the hull), is installed. On most of these boats, the actual structural ribs will be made and attached after the planking is complete, whereas in other boatbuilding traditions, heavier ribs are fitted before fastening the planking.

Planking begins with the lowest boards, called garboards. Each garboard consists of two planks scarfed together to make a length that will fit perfectly from stem to stern. The ends and lower side of the garboards are given a continuously variable bevel that will bed against the rabbet in the stem, keel, and transom. The garboards must be twisted into position, and then clamped into place for securing with copper nails. Each plank is bent by limbering with a heat gun, and then brushed with raw linseed oil on all surfaces. The joints are also caulked and bedded with a mixture of wool and tar. It takes a team of three students a full month to make and attach these two planks. While easier to make, the second set of over-lapped planks still takes three weeks to complete. Successive planks are secured with copper rivets. In October, when the garboards are complete, the students travel to Denmark where they learn to make rope from natural fibers (11).

When classes resume after a Christmas break, the cold winter weather keeps everyone focused in the shop. Students see the boats “grow” as each plank is made and installed. In mid-February, the students scatter to spend one week with a professional boatbuilder. Light starts returning in March as the boats take shape and excitement builds. The planking is now finished and the students take another week-long excursion to Sweden’s Åland Island for sail making.

Upon returning, students focus on installing the internal structural ribs that support the boats’ planking. The ribs on this type of boat are made from naturally curved branches, or they are steam-bent from sawn planking. Fitting ribs to the curved hull interior is tricky. The gunnel (the hull rim) is re-enforced with riveted oak strips called inwales and outwales. Thwarts, or cross planks which provide seating and re-enforcement for the hull shape, are made and fitted. Finally, the molds are removed.

The students make the mast and spars next. The mast step is a special bracket that holds the mast in place. These boats typically have a sprit-rig, a short mast and a light diagonal spar (the sprit), which is lashed near the base of the mast and at the far upper corner of the four-sided sail. Sometimes there is a small jib held in place with handmade rope. The rudder and tiller require careful fitting and custom hardware—as do the complex oars. Many students must collaborate to craft these special parts. Finally, the boats are finished with about nine coats of pigment mixed with boiled linseed oil. Moller says, “You must use your eyes. That is the most important thing to do. The boat must be beautiful.”

At the end of the school year, Stensund alumni return to help complete the boats. The students work late into the night, striving to do their best work—the details seem to take forever! At last, launching day arrives in May, when families and friends come to see—and try—the boats in the beautiful archipelago (12). Students fine tune the rigs and make necessary corrections during the final week of school. The boats are then sold to help finance the school. Moller declares, “The world is now richer with beautiful boats” (13).

Contact information
Stensund Folkhogskola
619 91 Trosa, Sweden
web: www.stensund.se
e-mail: info@stensund.se
phone (from US) 011 46 156 53200