Eel float ULF

The eel drifter ULF was one of the boats that filled Ringkøbing Fjord in the early 1900s. The boat was built in 1925 in Sdr. Lyngvig near Hvide Sande by boat builder Niels Chr. Graversen and his assistants. Back then, ULF was nothing special, it was one of many. In fact, there were more than 100 eel drifters on Ringkøbing Fjord at that time. But when eel fishing with seine nets was banned, the many boats disappeared.

More than 60 years later, in 1986, Ringkøbing Fjord Museer began collecting information about eel fishing on Ringkøbing Fjord. One of the museum's employees, Olav Martinsen, was involved in the collection and in this connection came on the trail of ULF.

The old propeller was measured and described, and work began on reconstructing the boat. However, the museum's focus changed, and for a period ULF lay dormant. Until 2018 when Olav Martinsen at an annual meeting of the Wooden Ship Association heard Tom Rasmussen and Thomas Højrup from the Danish Ship Preservation Fund say: "...in the absence of an original, a good copy can be worthy of preservation." One word followed another, and soon the museum had a letter of support from the Ship Preservation Fund and a grant from the Nordea Foundation.

It turned out that the replica the museum was building on was the very last eel drifter from Ringkøbing Fjord. Therefore, the boat was already worthy of preservation before it was finished.

Construction resumed and in 2020 an eel drifter was again sailing on Ringkøbing Fjord.