Built in 1881, the Holvikejekta open cargo boat sailed along Norway’s western coast bringing lumber and other goods to Bergen and returning with what the people of the Nordfjord region needed. Unlike most ships of its kind, it wasn’t scrapped when more modern ships took over. Now it is the only remaining clinker-built (overlapping hull planks held by iron nails) ship of its kind. Once it became obsolete, the Holvikejekta was brought to shore in 1906 and bought in 1909 by the Nordfjord historical society, which became the Nordfjord Museum of Cultural History in 1920. The ship put under partial cover by the Gloppeforden shoreline, but still exposed to harsh elements for more than a century. The Nordfjord Museum of Cultural History raised funds through the years to protect the rustic ship from further decay and opened a museum building in June 2025 in Sandane, Norway, to house the Holvikejektra and historic Nordfjord boats of several configurations.  Learn more about the Holvikejekta and watch a video of how it was moved to its new home. The website is available in Norwegian and English.

Holvikejetra by the numbers:  20 meters (65.6 feet) long, 8.6 meters (28.2 feet) wide. The mast was 26.5 meters (86.9 feet)  tall and the yard 14 meters (45.9 feet).