What dreams are made of.....

People dream about so many things - a nice home, a fancy car, travel the world - or many, like us at Norse Heritage Boats, we dream of a beautiful boat to roam the freedom of the seas, to discover new places, people and nature, to enrich our lives.

Unfortunately, to own a boat to fulfil these dreams very often takes an investment beyond the means of many people. Also, to reach new havens remote from your home port requires time, maybe more than you have available.

At Norse Heritage Boats we aim to do something about this!

Our ancestors in the Nordic countries, the Norsemen - or Vikings - built boats and ships that were very seaworthy, but still lightweight, shallow draft and propelled by both sail and oars. This made the Norsemen able to explore the seas, estuaries, lakes and rivers at good speed and still pull their boats ashore on any beach and transport them overland if desired.

In our modern times, this boat-building philosophy of the Norsemen has been picked up in the fast growing world-wide trend of "sail & oars" boats, adapted to be easily and quickly transported on a boat-trailer behind most family-sized cars to explore new and exiting waters.

This has increased the reach of sailing areas within reasonable time enormously. (See the video of the British "Avel Dro in Venice" under "Photos & links")

With today's use of boats for leisure rather than for fishing and other work, new priorities have become important: Comfort on board, safety, quick and easy rigging and launching, sleeping and preparing food on board, convenient storage of the boat when not in use and easy maintenance.

See more about how we acheive this under "Our Boats" menu!

How we can do all this both to make it exiting for you and at very competitive prices?

• Our workshop is located in Sicily - One of the less costly areas in western Europe, specially compared to the location of other boat-builders, who are mostly found in northern Europe or Scandinavia. - Check out "Why Sicily?" on the menu.

• You can make considerable discounts on the price of your boat, by coming to our workshop for a shorter or longer stay and taking on some of the tasks of building your boat yourself (with our help, tuition and equipment). This way we are relieved of working hours, and our price is reduced accordingly. An added benefit is of course experiencing the exotic and beautiful Siciliy! Check it out in detail under "Selfbuilding workshop" on the menu

The more than 1000 years old masterpiece "Gokstadskipet" in an Oslo museum.

One of the models we can build - the Ebihen