Sixareen Vaila Mae

The sixareen is a traditional sailing and rowing boat from the Shetland Islands that was used at the haaf fishing (meaning deep sea) in the 18th and 19th century. The Vaila Mae is a replica built for the Shetland Museum and archives by Robbie Tait and Jack Duncan in the Museum’s boat shed. The Vaila Mae was sailed at the Walls Regatta and Shetland Boat Week festival earlier this summer and gave the opportunity for folk to experience sailing in a sixareen and an idea of how these boats performed on the water. Shetland Boat Week has organised training of volunteer crew, to learn the ropes of handling a sixareen, this short film was taken during such a training session. This project plays a valuable role in preserving a very important part of Shetland’s maritime cultural heritage and is allowing a new generation, as well as experienced sailors a chance to learn how these traditional Shetland vessels handled and performed under sail. The Shetland haaf fisherman were some of the be