Ryssön fiskari
Also known as: Ryssön kalastaja, Ryssön motoorivene
Wooden motorboat wreck at 20 m south of the small Ryssö skerry in Hanko's outer archipelago, with no operator-published programme.
Last updated April 2026
The dive
A boat trip out from Hanko Itäsatama into the outer archipelago, then a descent onto a 20-metre seabed south of the small Ryssö skerry. What you find is the catalogue card made tangible: a wooden motorboat hulk on the bottom, with vessel name, build year, length, beam and hull orientation all unrecorded. The hylyt.net entry classifies it as a moottorivene and stops there. No operator-published mooring, no buoyed shotline, no community trip report. Visibility decides the dive — typically 5 to 10 metres, less during the mid-August plankton bloom — and a drysuit decides whether it happens at all.
What makes it special
The framing here is honest: a small, off-programme wreck on a Finnish catalogue card with most of the structured fields blank, and a custom-arranged outing in practice. Hanko's underwater landscape is dominated by 17th-century Dutch trading wrecks, 19th-century schooners and 20th-century war casualties on the Hauensuoli buoyed-park route; a wooden working motorboat sits well below those in archaeological prominence and in operator interest. Brackish Baltic salinity around 5 to 7 ppt rules out the wood-boring shipworm, so the timber survives at all decades on. Treat the dive as a catalogue verification when the better-documented Hanko sites are unfavourable, rather than as a destination in itself.
Know before you go
Vessel age is unrecorded, so default to Antiquities Act compliance: no touching the timber, no anchoring on the wreck, no lifting any seabed object near it. The drysuit is the gear-side gate at 20 metres in 8-12 °C bottom water; a 7 mm wetsuit does not work here, and a tested undersuit matters as much as the suit. The site is not on any operator's published programme — a private boat, a club outing through a sukellusseura, or a custom departure arranged with Hanko Diving on m/s Atlanta is how it gets dived. Russarö's Defence Forces firing sector sits ~5 km south on a separate island; the Ryssö position is normally outside the published danger sectors, but check maavoimat.fi before any southern outer-Hanko day. Compass and primary SMB stay standard kit.
Why Dive Ryssön fiskari
What makes this dive site stand out.
- Wooden motorboat hulk
Recorded as a small moottorivene; vessel name, build year and dimensions all blank in the catalogue.
- Off-programme outer site
No Hanko operator publishes Ryssön fiskari as a scheduled dive.
- Not Russarö
Sits on the small Ryssö skerry ~5 km north, outside the Russarö Defence Forces firing sector.
- Antiquities Act default
Vessel age undocumented; treat as fixed underwater monument: no touching, no recovery.
Depth & Profile
Location
59.7883°N, 22.9348°E
Conditions & difficulty
Summary
Easy by depth alone. Moderate when cold-water exposure, outer-archipelago surface chop and the absence of an operator-published mooring are factored in.
Safety considerations
What can go wrong here, and what divers do about it. Conditions change - take the briefing from the operator on the day.
- Cold and exposure: Bottom temperatures sit at 8-12 °C even in August. Drysuit failures are the dominant risk vector.Drysuit certification with a tested undersuit. A 7 mm wetsuit is not appropriate at 20 m here.
- Surface and boat traffic: Outer-archipelago position; SW-W winds drive chop into the area and there is no operator-published mooring.Confirm the marine forecast with the operator or club before departure. Carry a primary SMB and deploy on ascent.
- Site rules: Vessel age undocumented; default to Antiquities Act protection. Touching, lifting, anchoring on the wreck or recovering any seabed object is forbidden.Stay off the structure; trim and buoyancy matter. Hover, don't settle.
Regulations
No general dive permit fee for the area. Vessel age is not documented in the hylyt.net record; default to treating the wreck as protected under the Finnish Antiquities Act (Muinaismuistolaki 295/1963), so no touching, no lifting, no anchoring on the structure, no recovery. The Russarö Defence Forces firing sector lies ~5 km south on a separate island; rolling firing notices on maavoimat.fi do not normally close this site, but local divers confirm before any southern outer-Hanko trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly is Ryssön fiskari, and is it the same as Russarö?▾
It is south of the small Ryssö skerry in Hanko's outer archipelago at 59.788 N / 22.935 E, recorded by the Finnish wreck-divers' catalogue hylyt.net (card 2433). Ryssö is a small skerry; Russarö is a larger fortress island ~5 km south, used by the Coastal Brigade for live-firing exercises. The two names sound similar but are different islands. The Russarö-area wrecks (russaron-pohjoispuolen-hylky-1 and russaron-luoteispuolen-hylky) are catalogued separately; Ryssön fiskari is not one of them.
What ship was Ryssön fiskari?▾
Unknown. The hylyt.net card classifies the vessel as a wooden moottorivene (motorboat) and gives a bottom depth of 20 m, but every other structured field — vessel name, build year, sinking year, length, beam, hull orientation, condition — is blank. The catalogue creation date of 1 January 2000 is a placeholder used in legacy hylyt.net entries, not a sinking or discovery date. There is no published narrative for the wreck and no operator description.
Can I dive Ryssön fiskari, and how do I arrange it?▾
Yes in principle, but no Hanko operator publishes it as a scheduled dive. The realistic options are a private boat, a club outing — Finnish recreational diving is club-organised through sukellusseura — or a custom departure arranged with one of the operators that publish the area, such as Hanko Diving (Par Mare Oy) on m/s Atlanta or a Helsinki-based school like Sukelluskoulu Aalto.
What will I see on the dive?▾
There is no published narrative or photographic record for this wreck. The catalogue records a wooden motorboat at 20 m and nothing further; site-specific marine life, hull condition and bottom-type observations are not on file. Outer-Hanko fauna at area level includes blue mussels as the dominant wreck-encruster, eelpout, sculpin, and the occasional flounder, but none of these are documented as observed at this site. The dive is best framed as a check on the catalogue record rather than a destination wreck.
Do I need a drysuit?▾
Yes, in practice. Bottom temperatures at 20 m sit at 8-12 °C even in August, and a 7 mm wetsuit is not appropriate at this depth. Drysuit certification with a tested undersuit is the realistic baseline; outer-archipelago boat trips also expose you to wind and surface chop with no shelter. Carry compass and a primary SMB.
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