Scandinavia & Northern Europe

Scandinavia exported two hull forms to the world and a way of thinking about who boats are for.

The first form is Colin Archer's: heavy, deep, double-ended, drawn for Norwegian rescue cutters that had to stay out when everything else ran for shelter. Through William Atkin and the Westsail 32 it became the archetype of the ocean cruiser, and 'Colin Archer' now names a type more often than a man.

The second is the Folkboat — the people's boat, and the name is the argument. It came out of a 1941 competition that produced no winner, was synthesised from six finalists by a designer whose claim to it was disputed for the rest of his life, and turned out to be one of the best small keelboats ever drawn. The Danish spidsgatter rules had made the same point earlier by restricting materials to Scandinavian timber so that ordinary people could afford to race.

The racing tradition sits alongside rather than above: Anker's Dragon of 1929, Estlander's thousand yachts, Tore Holm sailing in five Olympics from a family boatyard. And the thread reaches San Francisco directly — Bjørn Iversen brought a Knarr to the Bay in 1953, and the Bay has raced them ever since.