Merkki

Finngulf

Finngulf was a Finnish builder of performance cruising sailboats. It was founded in 1981 by Stig Nordblad, and its first model was the Finngulf 34, designed by Håkan Södergren for the 3/4 Ton World Cup sailed in Helsinki that year. Through the 1980s and 1990s Södergren designed most of the range, including the 36, 39/391 and 44; in the early 1980s the yard also built Södergren boats under subcontract as Inferno yachts, and the Finngulf 39 began as the Crown 39, whose moulds Finngulf took over. The company traded as Finngulf Marine Ky in Inkoo in the 1980s and later as Finngulf Yachts Oy, based at Pohjankuru harbour in Pohja, west of Helsinki. From 1997 Finngulf worked with the Estonian yard Saare Paat on Saaremaa, which came to build much of the range. Around 2000 the line was redesigned by Karl-Johan "Kamu" Stråhlmann, producing the 28e, 33/331, 37, 41 and the 46 flagship, and in 2008 the yard added a 43-footer drawn by Farr Yacht Design for IRC and IMS racing. The boats were semi-custom, with teak or mahogany joinery and, on the 46, a choice of infused epoxy or vinylester hulls. Finngulf's own figures for the total built range from over 500 (2003) to about 900 (2013). Production stopped around 2010 and the board filed for bankruptcy on 21 October 2011, citing a lack of orders. In 2013 the brand, moulds and production rights were bought by a group around the Norwegian builder Tresfjord, trading as Finngulf Tresfjord, which planned to restart the 331, 37, 41 and 46 in the Baltics; no evidence of sustained production was found. The owners' association Club Finngulf keeps model histories, brochures and owner's manuals.