"Sailor's Village" or Sailor's Town consists of cottages built in the 1930s as overnight cottages during the regattas. Almost all cottages are later expanded.
In the 1800s and at the beginning of the 1900s, yacht sailing was a very exclusive sport that was practiced by the better off. Since then, the sport of sailing has broadened and become larger and Sandhamn has become an important center for ocean racing.
Today, the Royal Swedish Sailing Society (KSSS) organizes approximately 15 different ocean races annually, from our simple club championship to larger events: KSSS Olympic Class Regatta, Sandhamnsregatta - one of the oldest and most traditional regattas in the country, and Gotland Runt - the world's largest annual ocean race that starts in Sandhamn.
Gotland Runt was founded in the summer of 1937. At that time, the KSSS organized the first real ocean race that circled Gotland with 42 participating yachts. The boats came from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, England, and the USA. The course of 250 nautical miles started from Visby and went south to Öland's northern ground and further east past Hoburgen, against the current around Gotland and Gotska Sandön, with the finish line outside Visby.
Sources: Eknö Hemman Samfällighetsförening (www.eknohemman.se) - Exhibition about Sandhamn, Wikipedia, KSSS
Written by Alexa
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