jahta

Jahtas on Holma

jahta, a sailboat used in the beginning of the 20th century on Ruhnu island; single-masted with a big gaff sail, topsail and two foresails (jib) from which one reached the bowsprit; length about 14 metres and width 4 metres. Jahta was bigger than the traditional yawl (jaala) of Ruhnu people and unlike jaala, jahta had a covered deck, mess room and a galley.

In Ruhnu, jahtas began to be built from the second half of the 1920s when the advent of machines enabled to construct bigger vessels than before. Jahtas were built until the 1940s. It is known that 8 jahtas were built in Ruhnu – Hilda (later Doris), Rudin, Väl, Fram, Alma, Alida, Linda and Regina. In accordance with the Ruhnu tradition, several farms built the boat together who formed its sharers and whose men formed the ship crew. For instance, the sharers of Hilda included the farm of East-Steffens, West-Johans and West-Mikkos.

Like jaala, jahta was also primarily for seal fishing further from Ruhnu but in addition also for freight (e.g. stones, seal catch, barge boats).

The Wooden Boat Society Vikan built a jahta´s replica Runbrjarn in Haapsalu in 2007–08. Enn Metsar made the drawings based on the building master Jorma Friberg´s collected materials. Jahta Runbjarn´s body length was 14.5 m, together with bowsprit 17.2 m, width 4.5 m and draught 1.5 m.

jahta

Further reading