Named after Harald Fairhair, the king who unified Norway into one kingdom, the great dragon ship is coming together in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway.
Though recreating this ship mixes modern with traditional methods, the timeless beauty of the Dragon Harald Fairhair is indisputable.
Thirty five meters long and nearly eight meters wide, this Viking ship requires one hundred oarsmen.
Longships with carved dragon heads would be a fierce image in wars involving superstitious people.
Heeling and rowing tests were done with models to examine the salient characteristics of the longboat designs. Beautiful Sixareens!
Experts in traditional Norse boat building and the square sail are engaged in the development and construction of this ship as an experimental archaeological research program.
The aim is to recreate a ship with the superb seaworthiness that characterized the open ocean longships of the Viking Age.
The Dragon Harald Fairhair will have the same sea qualities as the great ships (storskipene) of the "leiðangr" - the Norwegian war fleet. According to old Norse sagas these ships combined the excellent sailing characteristics of ocean going ships with the ordinary warship's use of oars.
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