Vindo (Nötesund Varv AB)

The founder of the yard Carl Andersson, was born in a family where his ancestors for at least two generations had been boat builders, building fishing boats. He started his first own company in 1926 building pilot vessels mostly, beside a few crafts for leisure. During the thirties he was known to be a skilled builder of boats like Dragons, A22 and 5.5m for regattas and double enders, “koster” in Swedish. Most of the boats were sailing yachts but there were also some remarkable motor cruisers. Later, in the fifties they built folk boats among all the others. In the early sixties the son Karl-Erik Andersson who was an engineer in ship building, took over the management of the yard since Carl was getting older and not so strong any more. Carl remained by the drawing table though. During this time there came a man from Germany called Christhoph Rassy seeking employment in the yard where he worked some years before starting his own. The first of the boats in the Vindö range was a 26 footer called Vindö 28 built in wood in 1961 which could be considered as a mile stone in the history of the yard and Karl-Erik soon had to expand the business. Beside the 28 the building of various craft continued. In 1963 Carl constructed the Vindö 30 with a length of 9 m and shortly after the Vindö 18, 6 m long. In 1964 came the Vindö 22 a smaller version of the Vindö 30. In 1965 the skilled crafts men of the yard made the plug to the famous Vega and they also made the plug for the International Folk Boat. Through this work they came in contact with the GRP and shortly after the first Vindö in GRP was made, the Vindö 18 and the year after the Vindö 30 also converted into GRP. In the late sixties came the Vindö 50 and the 22 also transformed into GRP. In 1971 the sailing plug of the Vindö 40 was the last yacht made of wood built in the yard. In 1973 came the Vindö 32. Then to have something big to offer they imported a 46-foot hull from England where it was known as Bowman 46 or the Corsair. The yard completed the yachts but it never became any success so only a few were completed under the name Vindö 75. Vindö 90 came in 1975 and was not made in more then a few numbers as well. Carl then constructed the Vindö 65 in 1977, 38.5 foot, which as the 50 was offered in various models. At the peak there were about 50 employees in the yard during early seventies. Carl died in 1979 a year before the first bankruptcy in 1980. By this time the new owner group tried to modernize the range and had the designer John Lindblom, later he was with Storebro, to design the Vindö 45 introduced in 1981. After a new bankruptcy with a new owner taking over there was a new design presented with a superstructure in GRP. Since the Vindö was synonymous with mahogany superstructure it never got into production and the yard stopped building boats and is nowadays only making repairs and maintenance. During a some years other “factories” sub contracted the yard to make the interior of their boats hoping to benefit of the Vindö reputation but probably due to economical reasons never became a success. I mean that the yard probably weren’t allowed to use the material nor the refined ways of building there were used to.