Svenska IF-båtförbundets forum

This is the answer for an question in the forum: Is if boat suitable for blue water sailing?

folkboats around the world? Many sailors do it!
In the last years many sailor sailing in the big seas with a similar folkboats boats ..skill and preparation and cautions are required but you can do it.
Here some examples:

Sailing with an Albin vega folkboat design around America - South America Cape horn....:
http://www.solotheamericas.org/

Sailing with a contessa 26 folkboat (this guy made a 2 hour film about this adventure The film is very nice: title... "Between Home"!!!
http://www.nickjaffe.com.au/adventures/ ... australia/

Link for the film:
http://www.betweenhome.com/

cheers

Apparently many boat designers have got so far in their imaginatioon, that they are making folkboats from any 26-feet sailboat.

There exist only two "real folkboats". The first Earliest) one is from 1942 named "The Nordic Folkboat", initially built from wood, but later also from fibreglass. The second one is from 1967, the IF-boat, often named as the "International Folkboat". Both is from the same disigner, Tord Sundén from Sweden.

The Marieholm 26 is a cruising variant of the IF-boat, having the same hull form but somewhat higher freeboards and another deck design, giving a greater and deeper cabin. It was developed in the middle 70-ies.

As the performance of your sailboat will sooner or later, independently of what type of sailboat it is, be compared with that of an IF-boat, it is not very surprising that many boatowners will name there boat as a "folkboat".