Reflections on the arbitrariness of regional boat-forms

When describing specific forms of boats, it is quite often that their particular form is argued for as a response to specific local conditions, to locally particular wind, water or e.g. rocky shores etc. Looking at research on several examples of boats from Scandinavia, these narratives of need for regional adaptation do not hold fully. Local forms have existed alongside imported designs, which were not made to fit the particular local needs but served the purpose well, even though. And both forms were kept continually. The sucessful co-existence of traditional local forms and of imported different forms shows that the emergence of extremely specialised boat-designs in specific places must have other reasons than just their adaption to these environments. The demise of local forms to todays’ mass-produced non-localised forms shows that their advantage cannot have been that strong, as they would have survived stronger otherwise. Regional need for very specific boat-forms seems to be a narrative convention linked to folklore and aesthetic style preferences, i.e. it is caused by the need to express local identities rather than by local restrictions of usability