Unda is a double-ended cruising ketch custom designed in 1938 by Aage Utzon. She was built after World War II and launched in 1949 by Egon Nielsen Boatyard in Nakskov, Denmark.
She is oak framed, larch planked and copper-riveted. Her spars are made from spruce. Her cabin sides and cockpit combing are made from “book-matched” teak planks. Her interior and toe rails are made from African mahogany. She is a heavy sea kindly boat built for the North Sea. Typical of Danish construction she has an unusually large and deep cockpit. Not only is she a dry boat, it has been said that the Danes like deep a cockpit because “it is just not seemly to expose your kidneys to the weather.”
Unda was purchased by the current owner in 2004 for $1.00 – saving her from the chainsaw, and she under went extensive structural restoration at the including: 14 planks replaced, stern stem replaced, interior mostly gutted, new decks, new engine, all wiring and plumbing replaced, new rigging, and new sails.
This work was done primarily by the current owner with some help from friends and a shipwright.
She was relaunched in March 2005 in time for to win her division in the Master Mariner’s Regatta in San Francisco Bay. But the cosmetic and interior restoration is on-going. Meanwhile, she has been to Mexico and back twice, cruised the Pacific Northwest, and now her home is in Mud Bay on Lopez Island.