Ten prettiest sailing yachts ever, in no particular order. Nine: the Folkboat

Nordic Folkboat Lorema at Antigua Classic in 2015: Leo Goolden, now better known for his restoration of Tally Ho, found Lorema in a clapped-out state, restored her, sailing across the Atlantic to Antigua - and won! Photo by Tim Wright of photoaction.com

It has been described as a nautical Volkswagen Beetle. It has been hailed as a rare example of a good thing designed by a committee. But it’s more: the Folkboat is the most popular, successful and influential sailing yacht of all time. It has come to define what a small sailing yacht can do and what it should look like. We are talking, of course, of the Folkboat, in its 83rd year of production, and with more than 5,000 built to date.

The Folkboat story started life in 1941 in neutral Sweden when the Scandinavian Sailing Federation launched a design competition for a cheaply built boat that would be easy to sail. No single entry satisfied the judging committee, who nevertheless saw admirable traits in six different entries, and commissioned the yacht designer Tord Sunden to draw these elements into a unified whole. The result was a clinker-built fractional sloop with a simple rig (two shrouds each side, jibstay and backstay) and a small, low-profile cabin, on a lively sheer with a raked transom stern.

The yacht was the first choice of our late technical editor Theo Rye for his series of articles on yacht design a decade ago. He describes the boat's beauty as well, of course, as its functional design as “approaching perfection” and what he went on to say bears repeating here:

“The sections show a flare to the topsides for their whole length; a difficult trick to marry to a nice sheer, but achieved here. The freeboard looks perilously low but the boat is remarkably dry even when pushed hard. The flare in the sections means the waterline beam when upright is modest enough for decent light-airs speed, but as the hull heels it rapidly gains stability; aided by a very healthy ballast ratio, her stiffness is perfectly judged. She is also tolerant of added weight; a good attribute in a pocket cruiser, especially one capable of crossing the Atlantic or even more, so even quite reasonably equipped boats look and sail perfectly well. The firm tuck of the bilges leading into nice, slim keel sections help generate good lift (in relative terms) from the long keel, which is a key to good sailing performance. The shape owes precious little to rating rules, only hydrodynamics; you pay for that bold forward overhang in accommodation or waterline length, maybe, but driving into any sort of sea you’ll be glad of that bargain. The slope of the transom stern tucks the rudder deep under the hull and the angle of the stern post, while typically Scandinavian, looks old-fashioned, even exaggerated; but time at the helm tells you exactly why they stuck with it."

"The fractional sail plan is equally well judged; with her relatively modest displacement and wetted surface area (for the type), she can slip along just fine, but will carry her canvas well as the wind comes up. She has seakindly manners that punch far above her modest weight, and her deep cockpit and nicely balanced feel on the helm all add up to a simple but satisfying boat to really sail. Anyone brought up on modern, beamy boats who can overcome their probable prejudice against a long keel and lack of double berths (and, to be fair, standing headroom in most versions), is in for a revelation. The design of the Folkboat is an object lesson.”

The main appeal to those lacking Theo’s analytical skills is the boat’s suitability to almost any role. It offers one of the best one-design racing classes, with active fleets everywhere from San Francisco’s blustery bay to mainland Europe and the Solent, where Folkboats have won the Gold Roman Bowl in the Round the Island Race more than any other type of boat – 11 wins spread over nearly every decade since the 1940s.

But they are equally suited to the ascetic who wants to sail to far-flung places with the minimum boat, as Ann Gash did when she took hers around the world solo from 1975-77. The two-berth interior with its low headroom is akin to camping and most examples are equipped with an outboard motor rather than a diesel. When Colonel Blondie Hasler initiated the first singlehanded ocean race – the 1960 OSTAR – he chose a Folkboat (albeit junk-rig modified) and so did fellow competitor Val Howells. Others have found them to be ideal for coastal cruising or as family dayboats. Anyone can sail a Folkboat, but they are tunable enough to keep the most ardent racer satisfied.

Variants followed thick and fast. British Folkboats, IF or ‘Marieholm’ Folkboats and, in the 1970s, mock-clinker GRP Folkboats all appeared on the scene, all aiming to preserve that wonderful hull but add more accommodation. Near variants include the Stella and Contessa 26. Today, there are an estimated 4,000+ Nordic Folkboats in the world.

Buying a Folkboat can be very confusing. Prices fluctuate wildly between £1 and £25,000. Generally speaking, a good wooden Nordic will be had for around the £10,000 mark, with nice GRP examples fetching about the same. Cracked ribs and rot are the usual things to look out for in wooden examples.

Nomenclature is all over the place, and you’ll see all kinds of Folkboat monikers (25, 26, IF, International, Marieholm, Nordic), some authentic, some outmoded and some made up. However, the true Nordic is easy to spot for its clinker hull (or clinker GRP hull) and small cabin trunk.

Read Theo Rye's article in full here.

Read how Leo Goolden restored a Folkboat, crossed the Atlantic and conqurered Antigua Classic here.

Folkboat Association here