Ulstein og Hareid Dykkerklubb

Ulstein og Hareid Dykkerklubb (UHDK) is a divers club both for scubadivers and freedivers located in Ulsteinvik, Norway. It was founded in 1973, shortly after a treasure of gold and silver was found at Runde the previous year.

Runde is a small island just half an hour travel from Ulsteinvik, which due to its location and occasionally rough weather has become the wet grave for several ships and their crew during history. The treasure was discovered by three divers in 1972, which during the summer managed to salvage thousands of coins (appr. 470-480 kg). In 1973 the operation continued and another 120-140 kg of silver and gold coins were salvaged. The shipwreck was identified during the process as The United Dutch East Indian Company's freightcarrier "Akerendam" which disappeared in 1725 on its way from The Netherlands to Asia. It carried among other things the salary and earnings to the troops and the officials in the Dutch colonies in Asia.

In the last thirty years since UHDK was founded, club members have had thousands of dives in the district which surrounds Ulstein, Hareid and Runde. The divesites in this area offers great diving due to rich fauna, great visibility and lots of shipwrecks. During the winter the visibility can reach up to 50 meters, but for periods during Spring and Summer it may get reduced to 3-4 meters due to plankton. Each individual wreck of the various shipwrecks has its own story to tell, and a lot of them sank under dramatic circumstances, and many seamen have found their wet graves in these waters. Many of them were attacked and sunk by allied forces during World War II, others got caught by the rough weather and torn apart before sinking.

UHDK arranges diving trips a couple times a week. In February 2004 the club bought its last diving boat. It measures 27 ft (8.2 m). and is powered by a 180 hp (134 kW) Mercedes Turbo Diesel engine. This allows 10-15 divers to get the most interesting sites within 20-30 minutes. The last three years UHDK has gained several new members, and is today a club with more than fifty free divers in addition to approximately fifty scubadivers.

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