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Runestone
'Speedmund had this stone carved in memory of himself, the fastest of men. May God help the soul of Speedmund, the skate sailor who sailed ten times faster than the horse runs. Åfrid carved this memorial after Vigmund died when sailing into the rocks of Björkö island in a storm.' :)
Birka on Björkö, "Birch Island", was an important Viking Age trading center 20 miles, 30 km, west of present day Stockholm, Sweden.
Runestone
Vikings were the seafaring Norse people from southern Scandinavia who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries pirated, raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of Europe, and explored westward to Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Wikipedia
Viking explorer Leif Erikson wintered in North America in 1001, probably near Cape Bauld on the northern tip of Newfoundland. Maybe he introduced skating and skate sailing to North America.
'Leif Erikson Discovers America' by Hans Dahl (1849-1937) Wikipedia
Runestone. Year ca 800. Viking Sailing ship at bottom.
Three generations of skate sails, left to right. See more below.
Swedish skate sailing history - year 800 and forward
I am sure the Vikings skate sailed in Sweden some 1200 years ago - one of the world's first adventure sports. Maybe second only to fighting a bear single handed in terms of fatalities.
In a storm they could reach speeds of 60 MPH, 100 km/h.
Bone skates, made from a particular part of the cow's skeleton, have been found at Viking settlements and they were good sailors, they sailed the oceans. Those skates were not sharp so unless they also had sharp ones they could probably only sail downwind.
A, probably rare, exception might have been a thin layer of snow frozen on the ice which probably would give the the side way resistance necessary for being able to divert more from straight down wind sailing.
When not sailing with those skates they are thought to have propelled themselves with one or two poles with sharp flint? ends.
For sail they could have used a piece of cloth held out by wooden spars, a miniature of the rig of the viking ship or a held out coat.
There are plenty of runestones from that time in Sweden. One example of text is:
"Vigmund had this stone carved in memory of himself, the cleverest of men. May God help the soul of Vigmund, the ship captain. Vigmund and Åfrid carved this memorial while he lived." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runestone)
A runestone mentioned skate sailing has, to my knowledge, not yet been found. But it could read like this:
"Speedmund had this stone carved in memory of himself, the fastest of men. May God help the soul of Speedmund, the skate sailor who sailed ten times faster than the horse runs. Åfrid carved this memorial after Vigmund died when sailing into the rocks of Björkö island in a storm."
Birka on Björkö, "Birch Island", was a large viking settlement 20 miles, 30 km, west of present day Stockholm, Sweden.
The Valleberga Runestone, Sweden, reports that two Vikings had died in London.
The photo shows three generations of skate sails
Left in photo. Around 1880 a sail shaped like a parallel trapezoid was developed. The sailor stood on the leeward side of the sail which was rigged on bamboo poles. He sheeted the sail with a line connected to the lower front corner. Top speed around 70 km/h (45 mph). Comment: Probably rather bad control of sail with the sheet.
Middle. Around 1904 a five corner, kite shaped sail was developed. It enabled the sailor to control a larger sail area. Top speed around 100 km/h (60 mph). I don't know country of origin. Do you? US is possible, another of the few skate sailing countries.
Comment: Good sail control as the sailor grips the rig with both hands and the rig is held tight on his shoulder.
To the right. The Sail-in-Wing skate sail. Top speed is around 120 km/h (75 mph). Special small area speed wings could sail considerably faster, 100 mph?, 160 km/h?
Comment: The great performance is mainly due to the much lower air resistance as the sailor is inside the wing instead of outside as in the other designs.
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Modified Aug. 2021.
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