The Old Slipway

The new Municipality of Fjallabyggð (which includes Siglufjörður) bought the boatyard in 2011 and gifted it to the Herring Museum. The Museum makes use of the space for the repair of older wooden boats and the building of small rowboats. It is open to Museum visitors.

The old Slipway includes an exhibition on the 200 year history of boat building in the town. Displays of wood working hand tools as well as machinery - some nearly 100 years old - can be found here.

Siglufjörður received a mechanical slipway around 1930 and the shipbuilding yard was constructed in 1934. It is probably the oldest, perhaps even the only, small boat building yard still in use in Iceland. The company Skipasmíðastöð Siglufjarðar (Siglufjörður Boat-builders) was established in 1944. At that time, in cooperation with Icelandic and foreign boat-building companies, the Icelandic government was encouraging the renewal of the country‘s fishing fleet. Two of these new boats were built in Siglufjörður. The town of Siglufjörður renovated the slipway in 1950, making it possible to service three 150-200 ton ships at the same time.

    

Byggingarfélagið Berg hf. (Berg Constuction Co.) took over management of the slipway in 1969, through a rental agreement with the town of Siglufjörður. Under their tenure, the boatyard was very busy, servicing the whole of the Northern fleet. At least 50 boats were taken in for repairs and servicing each year, up until 1990. They also built handline boats and other small decked boats.