Historical Information

Firstly, Karst does not sail commercially the canals, he only wishes to share some information about a wooden monumental boat.

The naval architect of the Kruschen, C.G. Pettersson(1876-1953), is quit an interesting person. Growing up in the Swedish archeopelo, Carl Gustaf Pettersson had frequent contact with the maritime world and as a kid was fascinated by the ongoing combustion propulsion revolution. Pettersson would become legend among boatbuilders.

In 1902 Pettersson started a small boatyard and soon draw attention with his innovative and competitive ship designs. In 1904 and 1905 his powerboat design Viking won multiple international races and marked Pettersson as a rising naval architect. After some collaboration with multiple marine contractors Pettersson decided to start his own marine construction company in 1910 and would draw almost 2000 ship designs till his death in 1953.

Pettersson most famous ship, the Viking X, build in 1924 was famous for its innovative ‘step’ hull and is a distinctive element in almost all his designs, as is also easily to see in the Kruschen. Furthermore the dimension of the Kruschen are almost identical, though the Kruschen is more designed for comfort than speed. 

The Kruschen was build in 1926 and delivered early 1927 at her first owner Ole Stockhaus. The boat was registered at Royal Stockholm Motor Yacht club and would cruise the Scandinavian waters for 60 more years. In the nineties, CG Pettersson boats had drawn eyes from all over Europe and the Kruschen was exported to the Netherlands, The Hague. In 2020 Kruschen changed ownership to Karst and in 2022 achieved an official status as sailing monument, RVEN 4952.