Sørlandet

Factsheet

• Length: 66.00 m
• Beam: 9.00 m
• Draught: 4.50 m
• Hull: Steel
• Sail area: 1166 m2
• Year of construction: 1927
• Homeport: Kristiansand
• Flag: Norway

The Sørlandet is one of the smallest, full rigged training ships. At least she was built in 1927 as a training ship, but was primarily used as a motorless transport and cargo ship. In 1933 the Sørlandet was the first Norwegian ship to make a transatlantic crossing. During the Second World War the Sørlandet fell into German hands, sustained considerable damage and ultimately served as a storage depot. In 1948 the ship was once again ‘sailworthy’, and only that, as it was not until 1958 that she was outfitted with a motor.

Starting in the 1980s, the Sørlandet began to be used increasingly as a cruise ship, not just a training ship. It was in this capacity that she sailed a few times between the Bermuda Islands and Boston, among other routes. Later on, she was regularly sent off on two-week sailing cruises in the North Sea.

In the mid-1990s, the Sørlandet worked in close cooperation with the Norwegian Navy, the Norwegian organisation for shipowners and the local centre for Employment. To recruit new sailors, these parties organised six-weekly training courses for sailing in general and seamanship in particular.

Today, the ship is owned by the Sørlandet Seilende Skoleskib institute. This institute is administered and subsidised in part by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. The Sørlandet has recently begun offering winter cruises in the Caribbean and summer cruises in Norwegian waters. This is going so well that this will remain the ship’s function for the time to come. Cruises on the Sørlandet are accessible to everyone between the ages of 16 and 75, regardless of nationality.