Boat-building workshop

Many of the farms in Bjørkedalen had workshops like this for building boats, and this one came from the farm at "Pe-garden". Boats were built in many parts of Sunnmøre, but particularly where there was good access to pine trees, wich were used to make planks for the boats. In Bjørkedalen the forest was particuarly suitable. Here boat building provided an important side-income for the farmers, and in 1930 there were 23 farms in the area, all of which built boats. This workshop has a "grindverk" frame. This design was used for barns, boathouses, warehouses, boat workshops and turf houses - basically any building where good ventilation was required. The design is related to that of the longhouses from the Viking era and Iron age, the typical Norwegian stave churches and modern timber frame buildings. A beam was hung lengthways down the middle of the building, and it was used to hold the keel, stem and sternpost, and to keep the planks in position while the boat was being built. There are holes in the walls through which they could pass long boards and materials for the keel. The workshop was taken down in autumn 1965, and was erected at the museum in 1966. Some of the wall cladding has subsequently been replaced. The quality of the new boards is the same as the old boards, and the work was done using the original techniques.