Our experiences with Tilia based on member sailing and testing in the first 10 years.
The report is divided into two periods:
The first 4 years
The first 10 years
Boat condition after 4 years
Tilia has participated in many small and large events over the years, both in Denmark and Germany. There have been numerous TV recordings, with broadcasts in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, some of which are occasionally rebroadcast.
There has been ongoing maintenance of Tilia, she has even been subjected to constructive changes in an attempt to fill in the ‘gaps’ in the original Hjortspring find.
The further life of Tilia is described in:
In the four years since its inauguration, Tilia has been launched 13 times. When not sailing, it is towed ashore and driven up to the Linde shipyard. Only when sailing for several days does it remain in the water, well guarded even at night.
This procedure means that after a period in the shipyard hall, the boat is completely dried out and very leaky. It is sealed, at least to some extent, by filling the boat with water up to the lower seams and keeping the water level there for a few days.
In the beginning, the water flows out strongly, but after only 6 hours the water flow subsides. Where holes can still be found, these are sealed with ox tallow. In addition, we have started sealing longer cracks with a mixture of spruce resin and ox tallow in a ratio of 80/20. Over time, all seams will have been covered with a resin layer, bringing the boat closer to the appearance of the original Hjortspring boat when it was excavated.
Some long cracks that have appeared in the side planks have been fitted with exterior ash wood mouldings that have been sewn on. Overall, the side planks are the most fragile elements of the boat. Either they are subjected to particularly heavy loads or the side planks are made of particularly poor quality wood.
Photo: H.P. Rasmussen.
None of the seams have sheered.
Handling the Tilia during removal from the trolley and putting it back on the trolley has caused disproportionate loads. A crane arrangement that has been introduced has helped with this load. We must recognise that the alternating drying out and wetting out is partly to blame for the cracking. The boat is tarred on the outside and coated on the inside with linseed oil once a year.
She has been in the water for 281 hours, 73 of which she has sailed. In total, she has travelled approximately 300 nautical miles.
The first 10 years
A small printed booklet of 12 A4 pages has been published about the first 10 years. It is available in PDF format.
The publication contains the following sections:
- Sailing overview
- Constructive choices
- Material choice
- Paddling
- Long distance sailing
- Stability
- Boarding
- Steering
- Sailing with Sails
The PDF print is divided into two parts:
- Beskrivelsen, without text on centre pages (page 6 & 7)
- Midtersiderne (an A3 image)