Together with a Viking ship on a bank note
The new NOK 100 banknote, introduced in May 2017, depicts the ‘Gokstad’ ship in the foreground, with an X-BOW offshore ship in the background. This illustrates Norway’s long tradition in shipbuilding, from Viking ships to today’s innovative hull solutions. Read the full story.
Two of the seven other participants in the competition for the new banknotes also included the X-BOW design in their proposals.
However, the X-BOW is not inspired by Viking ships.
Although the profile line/stem line has a similar shape, the Viking ships have a relatively conventional rib shape typical of older wooden ships, in which the slender extension of the bow shape is more of a decorative feature. In contrast, the ULSTEIN X-BOW® has a completely closed volume defined up to the bridge deck. A Viking ship could not allow immersion of the fore ship.
We draw inspiration from science fiction, nature, architecture and technology, to improve operability, safety and environmental performance. X-BOW is particularly useful where weather conditions and waves demand stability and efficiency.
More about Viking ships and the X-BOW can be found in this 2006 interview with a museum representative from Sunnmøre Museum: Surfing on top of the waves.
Eight artists were originally invited to participate in a contest about the new NOK note series, for which the topic was set to be 'The Ocean'. The Bank of Norway picked The Metric System/Terje Tønnesen as winner of the obverse sides of the notes, while the basis of the reverse sides are the pixel motifs submitted by Snøhetta.
Two of the other seven artists also used the X-BOW in their proposals.
Church architecture
The architecture and design office Snøhetta is well recognized for projects such as the 9/11 memorial in New York and the library in Alexandria – and the reverse side of the new Norwegian bank notes. They have also been chosen as architects of the potential new church in the municipality of Ulstein. When the company presented the project in 2016, they revealed that the X-BOW has inspired the development of the new church.
In the process of concept development we gain inspiration from local and more distant references. The local references are important as it can help create a connection between the project and the local place. When developing the ‘Excelsior’ project for the Ulstein church, the X-BOW is one of the local references we studied. The vessel shape is an icon of innovative design and we are very enthusiastic about the product and the story behind it. We also discussed the yard industry in general, and steel as material. Steel will be used in interior dividing walls and exterior retaining walls,
says Margrethe Lund, who is project manager at Snøhetta.
Villain on film
X-BOW was the ‘bad guy’ in the animation film ‘Elias og jakten på havets gull’ (Elias and the quest for the golden treasure).
The world’s coolest vessels are the X-BOWs. And in the film world, the villain is the coolest. That is why the main villain in this film, the ‘Polar queen’ and all her assistants are X-BOW vessels,
said film producer John M. Jacobsen.
