Jaktkanot no. 5

The jaktkanot, or hunting canoe, is the youngest boat type in Blekinge and belongs only to the eastern part of the province, where huge flocks of seabirds pass in spring and autumn. Hunters needed a small, seaworthy boat that sat low and showed little on the water. This one was built in 1977 at Mårtenssons on Östra Hästholmen, with oak keel and stems and pine planking.

Andersson traces the type back to Greenland kayaks: in 1870 the naval officer Carl Smith acquired a sailing kayak and developed it in the Karlskrona archipelago as a rib frame covered in sailcloth. The Mårtenssons began building it in wood early in the 1900s and turned out perhaps 800 to 900. At 4.05 m by 1.155 m, she is drawn on five 1:10 sheets, including both a spritsail and a lug sail plan, and a full-size version is also offered.