Tolly 
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History of Tolly

Tolly was built in 1924 at the shipyard of Moen and Son at Risör, Norway, as a fishing ship ordered by a local fisherman in Smögen, by then a large fishing community on the Swedish West Coast . When leaving the Norwegian shipyard she was named Ingrid and kept that name until 1930 when she got a new owner who changed her name to Tolly, being the name of the newly born nephew to the brother of the owner, and she has kept that name ever since.

She is built of 2” – 2½” oak planking on oak ribs, where the ribs are quite tight mounted, to fulfill the governmental regulations for sailing in the North Sea. Actually she was built in dimensions sufficient for meeting hurricanes in the North Atlantic. Throughout her years as a fishing ship, she travelled the North Sea and all the way up to Iceland. Speaking to one of the owners from the 1930s – 1950s he declared that “you should know that Tolly has been through several hard storms during the years and always payed out well, she is a solid ship and you can’t get a better one”. Since she was so strongly built and sharp edged, the local fishermen also wanted to use her as an “ice breaker” during winter, for the other fishing boats in the community, taking the lead out to open sea when on their way to the winter fishing grounds.

In 1959 she was rebuilt with new steering house and a new 2 cylinder 120HP Skandia engine, which is still in place and works perfect. (Actually when I bought the boat I brought down some people who were very experienced in that kind of engines and asked them if I shouldn’t get me a modern diesel engine instead. They started her up and listened to her and told me very frankly that I should NEVER get rid of that machine, because I will never wear her out, she will last forever. What can I say, she has never let me down through the years I have had her.)

From mid 1970s she became a leisure ship with an owner on the West Coast, who did some minor refitting and then used her as a motor ship on weekends and vacations. From the mid 80s a new owner, a woodwork teacher, purchased her and that owner did a more serious refitting of the interior. He took everything out fore of the engine room, hacked out 5 tonnes of old concrete from the bilge. Then thoroughly checked all of the internal hull to se if there were any damages. After that survey he put on lots of linen oil, turpentine and tar, before he concrete casted the bilge again and then built up the interior as it is now, the salon made of larch and mahogany, and in the fore salon he re-veneered the surfaces to original shape, making it look very inviting and warm.

In 1996 I bought Tolly. I had for a while been looking for a family ship with a hull that could be sailed well enough. Looking at her lines first time I saw her, told me that this was the ship I was looking for, even though she seemed a bit wider than I had expected. The large beam on the other hand makes her very steady without almost any heeling under sail, and also has the good advantage of easy letting you walk around all of the boat without feeling narrow anywhere.
The coming years just proved me being right in my original assumption about her.
By the time of the purchase we lived close to the village of Sjötorp, beside lake Vänern, with its shipyard historically being the one producing most traditional ships in Swedish history, more than 400 in some hundred years, quite a few still sailing. Tolly was moored close to the shipyard and the knowledge and facilities there was always a great help when particular jobs needed being done, by them or by me.

Jobs done on Tolly from 1997 and onward

[ Tolly ] [ Sails and Deck Gear ] [ Wheel House ] [ Layout ] [ Galley / Saloon ] [ Forecabin ] [ Engine Room ] [ Specifications ] [ History ] [ Comments ] [ Make an Offer ]