Vera - LLV (Laurinlahden Venekerho)

A Skäreläja in average condition and with an old engine would approximate cost around 10.000€ - 15.000€ (back then in the early 2000's and now in 2020). That was out of my budget, but the Skäreläja boat type is not the only choice on the Swedish West Coast. There are others, like Marstrands snipa, Nicanders' snipa and Gullholmesnipan for example. The Gullholmesnipan had to different versions, one open as my previous one and one with a build similar to Skäreläja. I managed to get one older Gullholmesnipan in plastic, and a wooden build. My plan was to renew both all wooden parts as also the old engine (this time it was Albin 011). However, one year later my life took another turn, from Marstrand on the Swedish West Coast to Finland and the Gulf of Finland. A couple of months after our move, the new owners had a disastrous incident when the engine boiled. But like Skäreläja, an upgraded Gullholme snipa is also coveted and valuable. As you see, it clearly reminds of a Skäreläja. ...

Once upon a time, back in Marstrand during the 1990's I had a wooden boat, Orust snipa, built at the island Orust in the late 1960's. My parents gave us children gifts one year, my gift was to inherit my mothers boat. Boats usually have women name, but when the skipper is a woman the boat name can have a male name. So I inherited both a boat and its name: Karl-Åke. The history of the name is a combination of her son (me) and her grandson (Åke).   Every Spring, after every Winter I only not had to fix the boat, I also had to "watery" the boat so the dry wood should soak in water and expand, get tight again. Every Winter but one we I had the boat in a boat house, that year when it was outside under the sun I had 1-2 centimetre cracks - with enough water it got tight even if I was very skeptical at first. The places inside the boathouse (a barn) usually was inherited in a family, how I could get one spot there is still a mystery.    I remember one year when the boat refu...