Vindö Sailing Yachts for Sale

Vindö

Vindö yachts have not been built since the eighties, yet they remain among the most sought-after used boats to this day. No wonder, because among cruising sailors Vindös are considered archetypes of Scandinavian production boatbuilding!

Vindö sailing yachts are long-keel boats built by Notsund Varv AB in Henan, Sweden. The yard stopped building the yachts long ago, but these exceptionally sturdy and legendary long-keelers can still be repaired, restored and serviced there.

Boatbuilding as a family tradition
The founder of the yard and "father" of the Vindö yachts was Carl Andersson, who was already building small leisure, fishing and pilot boats out of wood in 1926. After his son Karl-Erik took over the yard in the best family tradition at the beginning of the sixties (Carl's grandfather had already made a living from wooden boatbuilding), the first Vindö yacht left the hangar in 1961.
This original model was a Vindö 28, whose "twenty-eight" had nothing to do with the boat's length in feet (as is usual today), but referred to the sail area in square meters when sailing close-hauled. Vindö kept this tradition for all the yacht types that followed.
The Notsund yard's most successful model came onto the market as early as 1963: the Vindö 30 (9 m x 2.42 m), followed shortly afterwards by the Vindö 18 (6 m x 2.10 m). At first all Vindö models were still built of wood; later the yard specialized, in keeping with the times, in a mix of GRP hull, wooden deck and superstructures and a characteristic wooden interior.

Successful models from the sixties and seventies
In 1971 the Vindö 40, another successful model from the yard, came onto the market. It was followed by the Vindö 50 in 1966, the Vindö 32 in 1973 and the Vindö 75 Corsair in 1975, and a year later by the largest Vindö of all, the Vindö 90, with a length of 13 m and a beam of 3.95 m.

After Carl Andersson's death, the yard quickly slid into bankruptcy, which could initially be averted through sales. In 1981 the brand-new Vindö 45 was supposed to put things right, but only a short time later the last Vindö yacht left the yard's halls.

The bankruptcy of Notsund Vary was probably largely due to suboptimal management, because the yard's boats and yachts were in strong demand on the market of the day. Not least because of the high export share of the yard's production – sailors across Europe in particular were wild about this archetype of the "Nordic" cruising yacht with traditional lines – the sales figures were right.

Strong to windward
Vindö yachts are now legendary both for their outstanding sailing qualities at sea (especially upwind – course stability and good pointing thanks to the long keel) and for their outstanding workmanship. To this day, Vindös are in strong demand on the used boat market among cruising sailors. Some of these "modern classics" have already been passed on to the third generation within their families. Among Baltic and North Sea cruising sailors there is a saying: "Once you've hooked a Vindö, you'll never let it go!"