The Oselvar is a small traditional Norwegian boat, developed in Hordaland, Western Norway. It takes the name from the Os river. It is along the river banks of Osøyro that Oselvarverkstaden (Oselvar Boatyard) is situated, established in 1997 by the Os Municipality in collaboration with Hordaland county. These boats and the tradition of use and hand building are on the UNESCO list of Good Safeguarding Practices and the knowledge of the few boatbuilders left has been passed down from generation to generation, in a tradition going back to the Viking Age, more than a thousand years ago.
It takes a year to build one of these magnificent vessels and it does not require any preparatory drawings. The master boatbuilders are involved in every aspect of the process: from finding the right timber in the nearby forest to testing the boat out at sea. The Oselvarverkstaden mission is to preserve the boatbuilding craftsmanship skills and to pass them on to its apprentices, ensuring that the Oselvar tradition will never fade.