June 2008 Heritage Feature: Shetland Sixareen Launch

Shetland Museum and Archives have announced that they recently launched the first sixareen to be built in Lerwick in over 100 years on the 21^st June, as part of a day of events and celebrations.

 The sixareen was completed in the Boat Sheds at the Museum and Archives, where members of the public have watched the progress of its build over the past three months.

 The boat is based on the INDUSTRY LK 718 which was originally built in 1891 and is now located in the Museum and Archives Boat Hall. Historically, the sixareen was an important part of the haaf (deep sea) fishery, where crews fished for cod and ling up to 40 miles from land, on trips lasting up to 3 days.

The name of the sixareen, the Vaila Mae, selected through a public competition, was revealed at the launch. The winner of the competition also launched the boat on the day and was one of the first to row her.

The Museum and Archives is hoping to be able to offer sixareen rowing trips throughout the summer, adding to the visitor experience. Tommy Watt, Museum Curator, said: “This is quite a unique opportunity, we don’t know of any original sixareens in a seaworthy condition and only one other replica. Initially we are just looking to offer trips in the sixareen, but may offer trips in other boats in the future.”

A sixareen is an open six oared fishing boat which was extremely important to Shetland’s haaf (deep sea) fishing industry throughout the seventeen and eighteen hundreds but had all but disappeared by 1920. The largest of Shetland’s open boats, these clinker built, double ended craft were recognised as the ultimate development of the traditional Shetland boat, directly descended from Viking boat design.

Local boatbuilders Jack Duncan and Robbie Tait built the sixareen. Although experienced boatbuilders, they had not built an open boat of this size before and enjoyed the challenge. They were also honoured to be the first to revive boatbuilding in the restored Boat Sheds, and recreate the craftsmanship which would have been seen in these sheds more than a century earlier. 

The Sixareen is one of three boats being built as part of a NORCE project. A Fair Isle Yoal, constructed by Ian Best, was launched last year, while the third vessel, a haddock boat, was constructed in the Boat Sheds and was also launched on 21^st June.

NORCE is an interreg IIIB Northern Periphery trans-national project. The project focuses on traditional coastal culture and how it can be used to support modern tourism development in a number of selected areas. The 17 partners in the NORCE project come from Iceland (4), Faroe Islands (1), Greenland (2), Norway (3), Sweden (3), Finland (1), Shetland (1), Orkney (1) and Newfoundland (1). Along with this local boatbuilding element of the project, Shetland is also taking part in a trans-national cook book, boat dictionary and travel trade brochure.

The Shetland Museum and Archives is part of the wider heritage and culture services provided for Shetland by the Shetland Amenity Trust. Funding for the Shetland Museum and Archives totalling approximately £11.6m comes from the Shetland Charitable Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Shetland Enterprise, Historic Scotland, Scottish National Heritage, Scottish Arts Council, Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation, Shetland Islands Council and Shetland Amenity Trust.

 See below for video of the launch.