The Oselvar or Oselver is a small wooden rowing boat traditionally built and used along the west coast of Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The Oselvar is a clinker built boat

Clinker (boat building)

Clinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks and, in the early nineteenth century, iron plates to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the individual planks...

 with thin, very wide planks. Almost all parts of a Oselvar are made of pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

, with only the keel of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

.

History

This type of boat has been very common in the outer regions of Hordaland

Hordaland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...

 for hundreds of years. It was named after the major important building site for this type of boat during the 18th century, at the mouth of the Oselva River in Os

Os, Hordaland

Os is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Due to its proximity to Bergen, Os is experiencing strong population growth. -History:...

 in Hordaland

Hordaland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...

. In the early 1800s, boat building was an important industry in Os and the neighboring village of Tysnes

Tysnes

Tysnes is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. The administrative centre is the village of Uggdal....

, on the other side of the fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

. The stylized figure of a Oselvar appears on the coat of arms of the municipality of Os.

Dating from at least the 1500s and continuing until 1860, these boats were exported in kit form principally to to the Shetland and Orkney islands. During the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 crossing, the wooden boats were taken apart and then 'flat packed' for shipping. Instead of sending complicated assembly instructions, they sent Norwegian boatbuilders to re-build them.

Although initially a working row or sail boat, the Oselvar also has a long tradition as a leisure craft. A boat which could achieve both grace and speed was perfect for sailing and rowing competitions. The first regatta was arranged by the Bergen Sailing Association on Midsummer’s Day

Midsummer

Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...

 in 1871. Today several clubs and sailing associations are engaged in promoting the traditions of the Oselvar, both as a sports and leisure boat. In 2009, the boat was voted Norwegian national boat in a poll held by the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue.

Related reading

• Leather, John (1990) Clinker Boatbuilding (Adlard Coles) ISBN 978-0713636437

External links

• bt.no, Video, ends with footage of two brothers rowing an oselvar.
• Photograph Gallery
• Oselvar Boat Yard