BCVSP Picture Gallery - "Munin" Sailing Pictures

Hi there! Welcome to the "Munin" Viking Ship sailing picture gallery!

Here's where you can check out the BC Viking Ship Project in action sailing our Viking Ship "Munin".

All thumbnail pictures are clickable and will bring up a full size picture.

About the pictures

These are a collection of pictures of "Munin" at sea and under sail. We have now moved on from the building phase and are into the "play with our new toy" phase.

"Blow harder, we're hardly moving!" The watch at the bow was full of helpful comments. The day was glorious, "Munin" was resplendent in her new finery, a great striped suit of sails, but, alas, the wind was fickle. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

As the sun baked the bay with its warm, golden rays and reflections shot back from the buildings like star bursts, the crew waited for wind. How many sailors have sat becalmed in eager anticipation of the their true life force: wind, wind and more wind. There is something about a wind that lifts a sailors spirits. Conversely, its absence puts a real damper on the mood. But, the wind lives by its own rules and cannot be rushed. So the crew are left to their own devices while the wind makes up its mind. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

Then, as the oarsmen start moving the ship under "Norwegian steam", the long awaited news are broadcast from the helmsman: "Wind! We have wind!" Well, a breath, a wisp, a gentle fanning through the rigging, anyway. Enough to fill the sail and give "Munin" a chance to preen and show off. And you have to admit she does look splendid. The wind picked up enough to give steerage way. "Munin" moves easily under sail and is a lot stiffer than one would suspect. Well, stiffer than us modern folks would suspect, anyway. "Munin" has some 3,000 lbs of internal lead ingot ballast. The ballast is much higher in the hull than on a keeled sailboat, but still works quite well to stabilize the ship. We put two reefs in the sail. As you can see, the reefs are quite deep. We figured that if we ever needed three reefs, we really should have stayed ashore in the first place. As we get more experienced, we may want to change the sail and rigging, so we'll probably end up with a different sail some day. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

With a following wind, Munin runs easily with a billowing sail. Running before the wind, meaning sailing with the wind in over the stern, is not the best point of sail. Contrary to what you might expect. It is also quite deceptive and requires extra vigilance from the skipper. The reason is that the speed of the ship over the bottom is a function of the wind speed and the speed of the ship itself. Theoretically, you can only go as fast as the wind. In reality, friction and the relative inefficiency of the sail to convert the wind energy into ship motion ensures that you always sail slower than the wind. Like it or not. You need another concept to understand this: The energy available to work on the ship. Let's say you have a 10 knot wind blowing straight from the stern and your ship is going 5 knots, not an unreasonable speed. What you feel on your skin at the helm, is an apparent force of 5 knots. Do you see the connection? Now, most small recreational sailing vessels, including Viking Ships like ours, need to shorten sail (reef) at about 15 knots, depending upon their point of sail. The "depends" bit will become clear in a second. A 40 foot hull like "Munin's" has a max theoretical hull speed of about 7 knots or so, which is easily reached at 15 knots of wind. If you are running, a 15 knot wind feels like about 8 knots to the helmsman. 8 knots is still a piece of cake. Now, say the wind builds further, until the helmsman starts feeling the force of what he takes to be a 15 knot wind and time to take in a reef. Surprise, the actual wind is now 22 knots. I also have to tell you that taking in a reef with the full force of the wind going into the sail is a most challenging task. As a matter of fact, all sailors worry about being caught out overpowered while running before the wind. If you try to round up into the wind (turning the bow into the wind to spill wind from the sail) you get the full force of the wind in from the side and will heel the ship. Perhaps even broach, or put the railing, mast and sail on the water. That said, with a square rig like a Viking Ship, you may be a little less at risk than in a fixed rig vessel because it is possible to ease a sheet and a guy fully and spill wind while you lower the yard to take a reef. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

Sail trimming invariably involves some flapping of sail and sheets. Here you see "Munin" having to adjust to a wind shift. The sail was trimmed for running, but the wind shifted so that it started to come in over the starboard leech. This illustrates another point about why running is not the most efficient point of sail. The reason is that the sail is an airfoil. The force of the sail is a result of the wind's speed over the front of the sail. The movement over the sail front creates a vacuum which pulls the sail, and thus the ship, forward. It may look like the wind is pushing against the sail, but now you know the real physics behind it. You should also see quite easily that running before the wind, does not present good sail edges for the wind to cross to get to the front; the angles are to steep. We just can't expect the wind to do a lot of 90° turns for us. Quite another thing, is the fact that running usually means the ship has a tendency to roll, i.e., rocking from side to side. On my trip from Vancouver to Mexico in "Ibis", a Westsail 32', I always found that running meant rolling. In sheltered waters where there is no ocean swell, the rolling is less of a problem. © Copyright 2001 Preben Ormen

All trimmed up, "Munin" settles on her new course and things quiet down. The crew can get back to enjoying the ride and catch a few rays. With a gentle wind pushing the ship along, soft noises from the bow biting into the sea, warm sun and good companions, who could ask for more? What a marvelous payoff from all the cold winter Saturdays spent wrestling with wood, tar and rivets. We should all be so lucky. It's a great comfort that some are. Keeps our dreams alive, right? And that's what it's all about: nurturing some good dreams ripe for the chasing. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

As the saying goes: "All things must pass". With the wind all packed up, daylight waning and the evening mist eerily moving in over the bay, the crew took "Munin" home under oars. The ship had proved its mettle and we finally knew without a doubt that we had a real Viking Ship. Many more outings have followed since this inaugural sea trial. And more are to come. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

Ah,yes: There were more glorious days at sea! Here you get a glimpse of "Munin" sailing on a reach, her fastest point of sail, in the great open roadstead of Vancouver harbour. (A roadstead is where commercial ships anchor out while waiting for a space at the docs to load or unload their cargoes.) The wind is coming in over the port quarter and the sail is braced in hard to starboard with the port sheet eased all the way. If you look at the water, you can see whitecaps here and there. Some people call them white horses. Light whitecaps like this indicate pretty much perfect sailing winds. There is enough to push the ship to hull speed on all points of sail without having to reef. © Copyright 2001 BCVSP

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