The film was recorded during the severe winter of 1941-42, which was the coldest winter period ever recorded in Denmark, with an average temperature of -5.5°C from January to March.
The film was donated to the Viking Ship Museum in 2003 by Børge Dahl, who remembers that as a child, he accompanied his father down to the Fjord to see the very fast ice boats.

An excellent ice boat

The Viking Ship Museum has the Swedish ice boat XLNT from 1905 in its collection. The boat is constructed from Oregon pine, e.g. ash and pine, was originally built for "Glaskalle" (John Carlsson), who was Sweden’s best-known sailor at the time.
It was purchased in 1920 for Roskilde Boatyard, where it was given the name ‘X-et’. It was in this boat that the Danish King Christian X learned to sail ice boats.

The word “ice boat” covers two different types of ice boat, where one is a robust row-boat with a steel rail under the keel. This type of ice boat was used previously to cross iced-over, unsafe waters. The ice boat was pulled across the ice where the ice is strong enough and is placed in the water and rowed where necessary. Ice boats were used by e.g. DSB on the Great Belt crossing.
The ice boats with sails are equipped with runners so that they can “sail” on the ice. Ice boat sailing has been known since the 18th century. The first sailing race was held in 1881 in the USA, which along with Germany, Sweden and Holland, is among the countries where ice boat racing is most popular.
The ice boats of the time were large, heavy and difficult to control and the American newspaper, the Detroit News, launched a competition in the mid-1930’s for the design and construction of a new ice boat. Among the requirements were that the boats should be easy to sail and that it should be possible for the boat to be sailed by just one person. The boat type was named after the newspaper and is known as the DN. Today, ice boats are constructed from fibreglass and these lightweight boats can achieve top speeds of almost 100 km/h.

» See the movie from roskilde Fjord 1941-42...

» Read more about the Swedish Ice boat XLNT (in Danish)...