January / February 2024

YUKON in Tasmania

A former Danish trawler earns her way around the world
54-ton ketch YUKON.

EA LASSEN

YUKON makes one of her daily runs on the Huon River from Franklin.

In 2008, my wife, Ea, and I, along with our sons, Kristopher and Aron (eight and five at the time), decided to circumnavigate the globe. I had been in Denmark for 16 years, during which time we’d restored our 54-ton, 60' ketch, YUKON. Originally named ELLY, YUKON was built of oak on oak in Denmark in 1930. She was launched with a 67-hp auxiliary diesel engine, a member of the inaugural generation of auxiliary Danish fishing trawlers called hajkutter, or shark cutters, in deference to their effectiveness at catching fish. From 1997 to 2004, we had thoroughly rebuilt her from the waterline up.

A world voyage was an exciting commitment that required a significant change from the life to which we’d become accustomed. At the time, we had an old, partially restored farmhouse on the island of StrynØ and a thriving charter business on our Danish home waters. But, after six seasons of charter life, a dull familiarity had begun to seep in. We wanted something more, given the personal and financial investment our family had made in YUKON. I recall saying “it seems logical,” when one owns a vessel of this tonnage and design, to want to cross an ocean or two in her. Otherwise it would be an opportunity missed and a regret we didn’t want.

We weren’t strangers to such voyages and lifestyle: Ea had crossed the Atlantic a few years before we married in 2000. Likewise, I had made several ocean crossings in traditional vessels and been a mate in my native Australia on the 200-metric-ton sail-training brigantine ONE AND ALL, and had also done my shipwright apprenticeship during her construction. We were both aware of the joys and challenges of long passages and wanted to give our two boys the chance to experience the world as mariners, with no airports. They would literally earn their miles, and sailing would give them a rare connection with the planet. And so we decided to go.

To read the rest of this article, subscribe by December 24 to receive Issue No. 296 as your first issue.

Purchase this issue from WoodenBoat Store

From This Issue

Issue No. 296
MALUKA in the 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race

It was a wild and windy start for the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race last July. Winds

Issue No. 296
The 30’ sloop DOROTHY.

On a warm, sunny May 27, 2023, a truck pulling a trailer bearing a gleaming

Issue No. 296
HELMA sailing.

Imagine a boat of such a right size and type that she seems to speak to you

Issue No. 296
55’8” yawl SCARABEE.

Pieter van der Aa has a seemingly genetic passion for wood. His great-

From the Community

Classified