Nordic Folkboat
Class symbol
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| Designer | Tord Sundén |
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| Year | 1942 |
| Crew | 2–3 |
| Draft | 1.20 m (3 ft 11 in) |
| Hull weight | 1,930 kg (4,250 lb) |
| LOA | 7.68 m (25 ft 2 in) |
| LWL | 6.00 m (19 ft 8 in) |
| Beam | 2.20 m (7 ft 3 in) |
| Ballast | 1,050 kg (2,310 lb) |
| Mainsail area | 17.0 m2 (183 sq ft) |
| Jib / Genoa area | 7.0 m2 (75 sq ft) |
The Nordic Folkboat is a small sailboat, rigged as a sloop. The design of this boat was the result of a competition held by the Scandinavian Yacht Racing Union in 1942, who were hoping to create an easily sailed and low-cost boat. The competition produced no outright "winner " but, taking the best features of a number of the entries received, the organisers commissioned professional designer Tord Sundén to create a craft that met the goals of the design competition. The resulting boat went on to become an international favorite of sailors and still endures more than 70 years after its design. The first Nordic Folkboat was built in Gothenburg in Sweden, and as of 2007, more than 4000 Nordic Folkboats are still sailing around the world.
The Nordic Folkboat, as initially designed, is constructed of wood in the clinker or lap-strake method of boat building. The boat was designed to be built with oak framing and fir planking, although different builders used many different species of wood. The boat has an open cockpit and a low coachroof covering a small cabin usually consisting of two bunks and minimal storage furniture. The boat is rigged as a simple fractional sloop, with minimal standing rigging, consisting only of two lower shrouds, two jumper shrouds, a headstay, and a backstay. Despite the simplicity of the rigging, the mast is highly tunable, enabling the Folkboat to sail well in light and heavy air well beyond initial expectations.
Its iron ballast keel represents more than half of this displacement, making the Folkboat extremely stiff and seaworthy, and it is one of the smallest craft to have made regular ocean crossings and circumnavigations.
In 1966, Tord Sundén introduced the carvel-planked “International Folkboat”. This design corresponded largely to the original, but it offered more comfort below deck, and it had a self-bailing cockpit. However, the term “International Folkboat” was too misleading and was forbidden. Today, the class is simply called “IF-boat.” The IF-boat was manufactured at Marieholms Bruk in Småland (Sweden) until 1984.
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