The enchanting port of Roskilde – where the 100ft Irish-originating Viking longship Sea Stallion now makes her home – is the very soul of the best of Denmark’s Viking traditions. And those who would denigrate everything the Vikings did in Ireland would do well to remember that when they arrived here, the population was in decline and badly needed fresh blood, a situation that they remedied, albeit somewhat drastically.
This was something which should be better appreciated in today’s Irish nation of world-beating horse-breeding. But be that as it may, another complex story is how the French-originating Bantry Boat of 1796 came to be in Bantry. Yet it’s enough here to say that the replicas have now been built internationally, with the staging of the Atlantic Challenge becoming something very special.
TIDELESS ZONE
Nevertheless it was special-plus when the Bantry crew took one of their replica Bantry Boats for this year’s Atlantic Challenge in Roskilde, as it’s the essence of the best of the Baltic in that it provides access to the sea, yet is very much in the Baltic Sea’s virtually tideless zone.
That didn’t faze the salty ultra-tidal sailors from Bantry. On the contrary, yesterday (Saturday) they were declared overall winners, with Denmark and the Basques equal second, the US fourth and France 5th. The table below shows their overall skills, we hope to carry more details in due course, meanwhile congratulations to all involved.
