"Hajen" - The Finnish Ford T-Model
Finlands the most successful classic cruising-yacht through the ages and it's history

1. Sailing in Finland through the twenties

During the twenties there was quite a lot discussion about small boat-sailing, not only in Finland, but also in the other northern countries. For the people the times hadn't been the best and yachting or having a sailing boat was not an important consideration. The economies collapsed, the rich became poorer and the poor lost their jobs. Gustav Estlander, a well known Finnish yacht designer - working in Sweden - became alarmed about the future of sailing in Finland and expressed his concern to the Finnish people.

In order to increase the interest in sailing, NJK (Nylands Yachting Ass.) decided to set up a youth sail training scheme. The journalist Fast, from Aeolus (Gothenburg's Sailing Ass. / Sweden) supported this idea. He was invited to Helsinki/Finland, to share their experience in youth training, which included acquisition of suitable small boats, ("boy boats" and "15 valour boats").
 
Within HSS (Helsinki Sailing Ass.) at that time, members of the salaried employees and craftsman's Sailing Ass.; considered ways to increase the interest of the new middle class in sailing sports (we have to remember, sailing at that time was still "royal domain" and not for the poorer people; boats sailed on regatta courses were designed class yachts and very expensive).
 
Many people involved in sailing in Finland already had a concept of the design characteristics of a good cheap cruising yacht. But who would design the new yacht? There were not many good designer's available, interested in designing a sailing yacht for the average man. Most designers already worked on established class designs which provided them with a comfortable and secure living. However one designer was found who was interested in the job!

2. Gunnar L. Stenbäck (1888 - 1947)

Gunnar L. Stenbäck was a sailor from tip to toe, a ship and boat designer but above all a yacht designer. He was already a well known yacht designer in his early twenties, designing successful R 6-metre and American rules yachts. For many years he represented the famous "Åbo Båtvarv" (the boatyard of Turku) in Helsinki. He had also been, for a long time engaged in cultural questions and he loved the Swedish language in Finland. But now it was his time to get an overall reputation as a yacht designer through drawing the construction plans of the coming cruising yacht, christened " the Hajen" (Finnboat). These plans were drawn at the request of the commodore of HSS (Helsinki Sailing Ass.) and the father of the "Hajen", Eric Nummelin.

2.1. Stenbäck`s announcement concerning the small boat question
Here I present some of Gunnar L. Stenbäck`s principles which later became visible through his design of the "Hajen". He wrote: " To get a boat providing value for money and capable of establishing itself as a class within our sailing sport we should in my opinion adopt the same principles as Henry Ford, albeit on a smaller scale. The only fully profitable and sustainable solution to the "cheap problem" is, in boat building, as well as in other areas, manufacturing quality products in large numbers.

It is therefore a waste of time to consider the production of inexpensive yachts unless they are designed and built with the "One Design" concept in mind. Take for example the "Östrabotten Småbåt" (a small sailing boat from the northwest part of the Gulf of Bothnia) as a national class of the Finnish Sailing Federation and you will get real strong competition within sailing races on big regattas. This boat, considered a "cheap" one will, within a few years become an extremely expensive little boat class, where the boat dimensions and type differs so much that it will cost 50% more than a similar long-line production "One Design" class boat. If the answer to the "small boat question" has to be found in long-line production of a "One Design " class. The question remains, - what should the boat look like? While every ordinary Finnish man has his own ideas on this,

Our yachtsmen must understand, that when resources are limited, one can get much more value for one's money - whether racing or cruising - in a first class "One Design" boat than in an individually designed boat whose single advantage is that it has the "ideal" dimensions, only then will we be able to find a solution to the problem of the "cheap" boat. Until then the "cheap" boat concept will remain a utopia and a discussion item for yachtsmen's leisure time!" (Frisk Bris 2/1930)

3. The “One Design”- idea and today’s wooden boat building

Here Gunnar L. Stenbäck drew attention to a question which is still today worth thinking about when we look at the wooden boat builders future and their employment possibilities. Today it is not enough to be able only to restore wooden boats, or from time to time build new ones. It is necessary to be able to address the mass market, so that the wooden boat can achieve the future we are all looking for. To be able to transfer our pleasure-boating tradition into the new millennium we wooden boat builders of the North must be able to use yesterdays professional skills in combination with future techniques, where we produce traditional boat types the traditional way, and in special cases modern composite projects. The goal is in any case the ultimate ecological wooden boat which is built consciously according to the principles of "sustainable development". This would give jobs to professional craftsmen who build wooden boats of renewable domestic resources while carefully using other means and materials.

4. The presentation of the “Hajen”

The "Hajen" was presented in the boat journal "Frisk Bris" 9/1930 and later at a specially arranged exhibition, the first Finnish "Boat Show" in May 1931. The "Hajen" was the talk of the day - a reasonable cruising yacht in every aspect, where experience from the expensive design class yachts had been accurately taken into account right up to the point where expensiveness begins -.

5. The specialities of the “Hajen”

The "Hajen" is the first "One Design" class yacht built in series and at the same time according to the "cheapness principles" of Henry Ford. The yacht is designed to be built by amateur boat builders as well as by small yards. All measurements are given as minimum measurements. All "Haj-yachts" are alike, with the same LOA (9,60m), LWL (6,60m), Beam (1,90m), Draught (1,10m) and Depl. (1,70 t). The yacht is build upon a laying iron-keel (min.750 kg) on deadwood.
 
The keel-plank is bent or steamed northland pine (280mm x 100mm). The hull planking is of northland pine (18mm deals, edge on edge) on bent ash frames (frame-dimension: 27mm x 23mm, by the mast 4 frames of 33mm x 27mm). The covering board is of oak as the coaming and the stem. The sails-area is small (21qm + 35qm spinnaker) which makes the yacht great for long-distance sailing as well as for race-sailing. The "Hajen" is a long and slender cruising yacht and much similar to the 22-square metre cruiser. The small draught makes going ashore easy and sailing in the archipelago a joy. The yacht can easily be moved on a trailer.

6. What do the others say:
The critics say, that the "Hajen" is not suitable for the archipelago, it has too little sailing-area, it could have more foresail and for long-distance sailing it could be shorter and wider, so it doesn't dive into the waves with heavy rolling. The keel could be a lead keel.

7. The “Haj”-class today

Until summer 2000 there have been built 289 "Haj"-yachts in Finland. About 100 were build for French owners and some 30 for Germany, Estonia and the other Baltic countries. About 30 yachts were built for America. The yachts for export were mostly built by "Åbo Båtvarv" and at the home front there were the Sailing Associations and their enthusiasts who ordered yachts from well known boat builders or built them on their own.

The "Hajen" has proved to be a popular cruising yacht for both young and elderly people. It has been proven to be the right archipelago yacht, with a safety keel, with not to big a sailing-area, which is liked a lot when it is blowing. Among the sailors the "Hajen" is known for its sailing out when the others are sailing in.

Still there is much competition in the "Haj"-class and the Finnish Championships have been held every year since 1967. Today there are around 50 yachts left in Finland and since 1963 there is an active class federation "Hajseglare r.f", were most of the yachts, their owners and their guests are registered.

"Haj"-yachts are still built and the class can be described as the only sailing race class, where there are only wooden boats competing. The reason for this: By the end of the sixties the Finnish Sailing Federation had come to the conclusion that a boat built in "plastic" to the same weight and dimensions as a wooden boat would not be technically feasible, therefore they went in for the design of new boat classes. In relation to this we have also to remember that in "plastics" we can never build better boats, "plastics" only gives us the chance to be able to build newer and other sorts of boats.

Even the easier maintenance of a "plastic" boat is a myth. Over a perion of time it is no easier to keep a "plastic" boat in good condition, even if their owners think so in the beginning.

My wish for the coming future is to see more "Haj"-yachts being built, and hopefully we will find each other one day in wooden "Haj"-yachts riding on the waves of the "Archipelago Sea".

Author: Christian Illner