6-Metre Yacht Racing, Norwegian American Style

King Olav V of Norway

The year was 1955. Norway's Crown Prince Olav commissioned a new 6-Metre racing yacht, designed by Bjarne Aas, and named her Hanko III. Olav raced her for a year, then made the boat available for another owner in a lottery.  Olav, an Olympic Gold Medalist in the 6-Metre class, would later become King Olav V of Norway.   Hanko III went on to have a successful racing career for a series of owners and eventually made her home port in Seattle.

Turn the pages of the calendar to 1958.  I was at my great-grandma's house in Ballard, a Scandinavian neighborhood in Seattle, and I was 5 years old.  Grandma Emma Jorgenson asked me if I knew how to fish, and I told her no, I had never fished.  She said "Himmel, you must know how to fish if you are going to grow up."  After all, she moved to Seattle from Norway, and Grandpa Ole sailed his 27-foot trawler to Alaska every year to fish for salmon.  Emma would sit in the upstairs bedroom which had a view of Shilshole Bay and Port Madison and watch for Ole to return home while she spun yarn on a spinning wheel. 


When Grandma Emma learned I could not fish, she took me in the backyard and we dug worms for bait, then she walked me down the hill a few blocks to Ray's Boathouse.  I put the worm on my hook and lowered my line and came up with a flounder.  Grandma Emma cleaned the flounder and cooked it for dinner.  It felt like a Norwegian rite of passage.

The Lipton Cup

Fast forward to 2012.  I sailed our cruising boat, Sublime, across Shilshole Bay to Port Madison Yacht Club, to race in the Lipton Cup aboard Hanko III, King Olav's former yacht, now owned by Norwegian American Ron Keys.  

The Lipton Cup is a perpetual trophy donated by Sir Thomas Lipton to the Seattle Yacht Club in 1913.  The Cup has been contested every year since then on the waters of Puget Sound.  For the first few years, the Cup was raced in R-class yachts, but when 6-Metres became more popular, they became the class to compete for the Lipton Cup.

Hanko III, powered up under spinnaker and digging a hole in the water     
Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

 There were nine 6-Metre Yachts competing for the 2012 Lipton Cup.  We raced four races on Saturday after waiting for the wind to build.  Boy, did it build.  A rainstorm moved in with gusts of more than 25 knots.  

Hanko making good speed through the water downwind      
Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

 The wind became so strong that one of the boats, Lulu, owned by Craig Downey, dismasted.  

Lulu ended her regatta early after dismasting in the storm      
Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

The sun broke through the clouds and after the races we sailed back to Port Madison Yacht Club. The six-metre crews then went on dinghy's to a party on the 101-foot  schooner Ragland, once owned by Neil Young.  Check out Ragland here.

The schooner Ragland, once owned by Neil Young, 
our post-race party venue     
 Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

Sunday brought moderate wind and blue sky with puffy white clouds.  We did two races and went back to the yacht club for the awards ceremony.  

Hanko III rounding the windward mark, ready to hoist her spinnaker   

Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

Current 6-Metre class world champion Eric Jesperson from Sidney, B.C., won first place in the Lipton Cup.  We felt pretty good about getting 3rd place in the Classic Division on Hanko III, with a bunch of old sails and a pick-up crew.

Current 6-Metre class world champion Eric Jesperson, 
on his way to a Lipton Cup victory aboard Goose     
Photo by Dana Olson - Copyright 2012

 After the awards ceremony, I sailed back to Shilshole Bay Marina on Sublime, towards Ray's Boathouse, and I could see my Grandma Emma's old house as I entered the breakwater. This had been a very special weekend for this Norwegian American.  Yah sure, you betcha.

Sailors have used the sign at Ray's Boathouse for years 
to find their way back to Shilshole Bay Marina

See more beautiful photos by Dana Olsen of 2012 Lipton Cup here

A Dream Comes True

The Dolores M. Jackson, a 43-foot Murray Peterson designed coastal schooner, built over 32 years by Roy and Dee Jackson.

I met Roy Jackson in 1982 when we worked together at an advertising agency. At that time, he already had six years invested in building the Dolores M. Jackson, a 43-foot Murray Peterson designed coastal schooner. The schooner gradually took shape in a shed at his house on Bainbridge Island.

Turn the clock ahead twenty-six years to September of 2008. Visualize calendar pages turning, and a line being drawn on a navigation chart marking our course from Seattle to Bainbridge Island as my wife Nola, daughter Sara and I sail our boat to spend the night at Winslow Wharf Marina in Eagle Harbor. I evaluate marinas on their P/D ratio. What is a P/D ratio, you might ask? Pub to Dock ratio, of course! There are three pubs within a couple of hundred yards from Winslow Wharf Marina, so we sail there a few times a year to spend the night and sometimes visit with friends that live on the island.

On this voyage, we got a chance to meet up with Roy and Dee (Dolores M.) Jackson. After 32 years, their dream had come true and the Dolores M. Jackson was nearly complete, sitting perfectly on her lines a few docks away from where we were moored for the night.

I walked our Cairn terrier, Ella, over to Roy and Dee’s boat and was surprised to see another Cairn Terrier already aboard! Iris is Roy and Dee’s Cairn terrier, and her nose was a bit out of joint when another terrier invaded her territory. Iris remained on deck while Ella checked out the beautifully laid out and appointed cabin below deck.


Dee Jackson and our dog Ella relax in the library aboard the Dolores M. Jackson

The galley is set up very efficiently, with a large sink and plenty of storage space. Books surround the library on shelves behind the settees, and a Dickenson stove keeps the cabin warm and cozy. Deck prisms let in the sunlight from above and cast rainbows here and there, adding a magical quality to the light inside the cabin.


Roy plays host in the galley

The salon amidship has comfortable seating, upholstered in supple Italian leather, and a bunk to climb into for a good night’s sleep. The light color of the leather is balanced by the dark, hand-finished woodwork and bright, white enamel.


Creamy Italian leather sets off the dark finish of the wood in the salon amidship

The spars were recently stepped while the Jackson was on a grid in Poulsbo, a Scandanavian fishing town a few miles away from Bainbridge Island. My great-great granparents lived in the 1880’s. All that remains to be done for the Jackson to be completed is a bit of rigging before bending on the sails, and then she will take her maiden voyage under sail.

Roy searched far and wide for just the right sail maker and found one in Maine in the hometown of the boat’s designer, Murray Peterson. Roy called sail maker Nat Wilson and explained what he needed. Nat said he had done sails for a number of similar packet schooners, and would be glad to take the job. Nat said that Roy would have to wait a while, because he had a big job ahead of him. When Roy asked what the job was, Nat responded: “The USS Constitution”. Nat built the suit of sails used when Old Ironsides sailed for the first time in 117 years to mark her bicentennial. Roy said he could probably wait for that.

He offered to send Nat a set of plans for the Jackson with the dimensions of the sails. Nat said not to bother sending plans; he would just walk across the street and get some. Puzzled, Roy asked for an explanation of how Nat was going to get the plans, and Nat said that he was looking out his window at Bill Peterson’s house, son of the designer Murray Peterson. It seems that Nat and Bill had been room mates in college and Bill kept copies of his father’s designs. Small world

On deck, the Dolores M. Jackson has traditional running rigging with blocks and tackles; not a single winch to be seen! By coincidence, Gordon Sims, Roy’s friend who has been helping to rig the boat, was the Captain aboard the schooner Adventuress when our daughter Sara was an intern on the crew. Small world!


Looking forward on deck. Not a winch to be seen!

Every detail of the boat is traditional and authentic. Finding rare parts and supplies was part of the challenge that Dee and Roy faced. Rather than settle with a plain steering wheel, Roy had a wheel cast with “Dolores M. Jackson” in raised letters. Nice touch!


The steering wheel has the name of the vessel, “Dolores M. Jackson” cast in raised letters

Many people have dreams, but very few of them are realized. Roy and Dee Jackson are part of that rare group that can make dreams come true.

For more photos and stories about the construction and launching of the Dolores M. Jackson, visit her website at http://doloresmjackson.com/