Dimensions and sizes of MAJA.

Type: 3-masted sail sail schooner
Length everywhere: 43 meters incl. bow spruce, (hull length 33.60 m)
Width: 6.60 meters
Mast height from the waterline: 26 meters
Draft: 2.45 meters
Gross Register Tons: 141 GRT
Building materials: Steel, with wooden deck
Year of construction and place: 1916-18 in Holland
Sailing area: 480 sq.m.
Main engine: Guascor V12 400 hp
Light engine: Mitsibishi diesel 30 kw. 380/230 volts
Engine speed: 7 knots, for sails up to 11 knots
Furnishing: Salon in deck house for 28 pers and a salon u deck for 60 dining guests and 24 bunks, galley, 2 single chambers, 2 double chambers, 2 x toilet / bath, ruf aft with cutlery hatch and skipper hatch.

Maja’s story

“Maja” was built during the First World War at one of many shipyards along the Rihnen in the Netherlands, the shipyard was called G. Boot am Alphen. At that time it was the ship 26 meters long and had a very high mast at the front and a slightly lower aft (rear), the type of ship was called a sail logger. The keel was laid in 1916, which means that the ship’s construction began, but it was not until 1918 that it was completed, presumably due to failing steel supplies during the war. The sail logger was a heavily built construction, with sharp lines intended for the North Sea’s sharp lakes. “Maja” was then called “Hans KW 56” and sailed from the Rihnen and fished in the North Sea for herring.

However, the fishing was not profitable, and “Hans” was therefore obvious for a few years, changed owner in 1921, but only in 1930 did the ship get a more favorable fate, when it was sold to Hamburg on 7/7 1930, and rebuilt from fishing logs, to be a sailing cargo ship. The ship was extended 7 m. And got a new rig consisting of three masts instead of the traditional logger rig (ketchrig) with only two masts. Finally, the ship got its current name “Maja”, and was helped profitably by a newly installed 30-horsepower single-cylinder “Oberursel” two-stroke engine for propulsion.

“Maja” sailed until 1957 from Hamburg with dry cargo, ie grain, coal, granite, wood, manure and similar cargoes. The voyage took place in the North and Baltic Seas, which meant that the ship was often en route in Danish waters, and probably also with calls at Danish ports. In 1957, “Maja” was sold to a Danish shipowner from Thurø. Namely, the shipowner Thurø Madsen in folklore, who for a time had five small ships, all named something with Thurø contained in the name. The ships were engaged in what was called reduced speed, ie they sailed in inland Danish waters and the Baltic Sea. “Maja” was named in Madsen’s custody “Thurøsund”.

Since then, “Maja” was sold to Horsens, where the Ceres breweries chartered her, and she sailed under the name “Top” many loads of malting barley into the brewery in Aarhus.

When “Maja” came to Denmark, the rig had already been significantly reduced, and the propellant was now primarily machine power. The new Danish owner thus gave “Maja” an even bigger machine, a B&W Alpha engine of 210 HP.

Under the Danish flag, “Maja” was in the years until today employed in the Danish small shipping industry, and its owners can rightly be called some of the seafarers. Under the name “Leo”, three sons were raised on board by the owner Leo F. Petersen and his wife Gyda Petersen in the years from 1967 to 1982.

Until the restoration of “Maja” began in 1997, she was still in domestic traffic, but with worse and worse conditions, as the ship was gradually too small and outdated for the freight industry. She made the last freight journey with the cargo filled with Bornholm granite from Rønne to Copenhagen in December 1996.

The following winter, the ship was rigged up with 3 pole masts (without top bars), just like the original somewhat lower rigging, so that the ship seen from the outside got more or less the look known from photos taken in Hamburg in the thirties. In 2006, the ship got a new and larger rig as a bram sail schooner with the distinctive reeds on the front mast, the ship became with this rig more harmonious as a sailing ship, and got much better sailing properties – although it is not exactly as it has been in the 30s.

Down in the old cargo hold, there are not many traces of the empty space, where grain and feed for generations have been thrown down before being transported and unloaded ashore in a new port. Today there is a salon / banje and a galley, you can stay 24 people on this banje (bedroom) and 60 dining guests can be accommodated.

Today Maja is owned by Jegvan Åkerstrøm and sails excursion sailing especially on the Limfjord.