Norwegian history sets sail in race

A local Sons of Norway lodge sponsors the Syttende Mai Viking Regatta for the anniversary of Norway's independence from Denmark.

By JULIANNE WU

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2000

SEMINOLE -- With the determination of Vikings, the small crew of seven rowers and a tiller plowed across the reservoir at Walsingham Park.

"Row, row," shouted the tiller, Jackie Wynn of Redington Shores. On her command, the crew rowed in unison, moving the 23-foot Solkyst during practice last week for an upcoming regatta.

And when the wind kicked up, the sailors put down their oars and with hand-held ropes hoisted the red, white and blue square sail, flying the colors of the Norwegian flag.

Patterned after the Viking ships of old, only smaller, the boat has been used for almost 20 years by the members of the Suncoast Sons of Norway Lodge 562 in Seminole.

While the crew has changed over the years, the Solkyst, with its fiberglass hull, 16-foot wooden mast and 10- by 12-foot sail, has remained pretty much the same, except for the occasional paint job.

"And, while the real Viking ships had dragon or serpent heads and tails on their boats," said Donna Norman, the lodge's newsletter chairwoman, "our boat has an alligator head and tail . . . because we're in Florida. Also, because there are alligators in this lake."

"Solkyst is Norwegian for Suncoast," said crew member Catherine Kristensen, 55, of Clearwater, before the practice began. She and her husband, Einar, also 55 and a crew member, have been in the club and Florida for 18 years.

The practice was in anticipation of the Suncoast Lodge's participation in the 19th annual Syttende Mai Viking Regatta, which the club will sponsor Saturday at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor.

The lodge -- which has about 200 members, mostly of Scandinavian descent, in their early 20s to mid-90s -- holds the annual regatta around May 17 or Syttende Mai (in Norwegian) because that was the day in 1814 when Norway gained its independence from Denmark, after 500 years of rule by the Danes.

Both men's and women's crews from the Suncoast Lodge will compete at the regatta against at least four other boats from the other 14 lodges in Florida. The day will also include children's games, a boutique, a catered lunch by Scandia Restaurant of Indian Shores and a dinner dance and awards ceremony later in the evening at the Clearwater Country Club.

For Tuesday's practice, the crew consisted of lodge president Phil Nelsen; Sandy Inman of Seminole; the Kristensens, Wynn and three new members: first-timer Jeff Sandeen, 21, of Largo; Mike Sieber, 57, of Treasure Island and Keith deBrocque, 45, of Largo.

"Women can be part of a men's crew, but men can't be on a women's crew," said Inman, 55, who teaches health education at Osceola High School.

Part of the festivities at the regatta will be geared toward the Year of the Viking and one famous Viking in particular, Leif Ericsson, said Norman, 46, of Largo.

In 1000 A.D., Leif Ericsson (his last name is sometimes spelled Eriksson) -- the son of Eric the Red -- and a band of Vikings sailed westward from Brattahlid in southern Greenland to Vinland -- better known today as Newfoundland, in North America. (He called it Vinland because of the grapes found growing there.)

Ericsson beat Christopher Columbus to North America by about 500 years.

To honor the Vikings and particularly Ericsson, a number of international events are also being planned by the governments of Greenland, Iceland, the United States, Canada, the Faroe Islands and Norway.

For instance, a crew of nine people dressed in replicated Norse garments will sail on the Viking ship Islendingur this summer from Eric the Red's farm at Eiriksstadir in Iceland to his farm at Brattahlid (today it's Qassiarsuk) in southern Greenland and then on toward Canada and the United States.

Although Norwegians claim Ericsson as their ancestor, he can probably be claimed by others, too. According to historians, the Vikings conquered and lived in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany for about 5,000 years. They most likely migrated from central Asia. They also conquered and occupied parts of Ireland, Scotland, Normandy, England and even Russia.

Although he's only in his 20s, Sandeen is thinking of joining the Sons of Norway to get more in touch with his Norwegian ancestry. "My Norwegian grandparents belonged to a lodge in Illinois for many years."

After his first time as a crew member on the Solkyst this week, he grinned and said: "Not bad, not bad at all."

-- Information for this report is from Times files, the Miami Herald, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Web site of Project Leif 2000 Greenland.

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