Tord Sundén was hired by the Scandivian Sailing Federation to finalize the plans based on four awarded entries in the design competition.

[2][4] By the mid 1970s, timber costs and competition from modern fibreglass boats meant that the folkboat sales were dwindling.

Fibreglass versions of the traditional timber folkboat were created by Erik Andreasen and Sven Svendsen.

The Royal Swedish Sailing Association decided to hold a competition to choose a design for a new keelboat, with the support of Swedish shipping magnate Sven Salén, who had won a sailing bronze medal in the Six Meter class at the 1936 Summer Olympics held on the Bay of Kiel.

Until the time of his death at age 90 in 1999, Sundén was still trying to establish his claim to the credit and the royalties for the design and the matter has never been fully resolved.

The hull has a spooned, raked stem, a sharply angled transom, a keel-mounted rudder controlled by a tiller and a fixed modified long keel, with a cut-away forefoot.

[2][4] The boat has a draft of 3.92 ft (1.19 m) with the standard keel and may be fitted with a small outboard motor for docking and manoeuvring.

[16] The boat is supported by an active class club that organizes racing events, the Nordic Folkboat International Association.

There are also fleets in Finland, Latvia, Estonia and the San Francisco Bay area of the United States.

"[13] Practical Sailor magazine described the boat in 2010, saying, "the Nordic Folkboat, a clinker-built sloop with a reverse transom, a spoon bow, and a low cabin that gave it simple but pretty lines.

Its long keel, slack bilges, barn-door rudder, and hefty ballast ratio (just over 50 percent) equipped it for North Sea adventures.

"[14] Dieter Loibner described the boat in Soundings in 2017 as "a descendant of the sturdy Viking ships, a wind's bride that knows how to handle Erasmus’ moods".