Boat Name: Noreg

Sail: N 27, US 41

Year Built: 1927

Designer: Johan Anker

Builder: Anker & Jensen

Owner: Time and memory

History:

 

 

L.O.A. : 36' 6"
L.W.L. : 24' 6"
Sail Area: 465 sq. ft.
Beam: 6' 0"
Draught: 5' 6"

Noreg's history is unique but is by no means unusual since every Six, it seems, is unique and special. Designed by Johan Anker, she was built by Anker and Jensen in 1927 for a Norwegian syndicate headed by Crown Prince Olav. She was built primarily as a challenger for the Seawanhaka Cup but under the able hand of Norwegian whaling magnate Magnus Konow, she proved to be an able contender for the Scandinavian Gold Cup as well.

For these events, Noreg was shipped to Long Island Sound with six other European boats; May Be (S 2), Merenneito (L 22), Mati (I 41), De Ruyter(H 7), English Rose (K 22), and Lily (D 33). The Seawanhaka Cup of 1927 came first and there Noreg met the American defender Clytie II (US 33) designed by Clinton Crane and skippered by Sherman Hoyt who was none too happy about the selection of Clytie over his radical Atrocia (US 35).

Konow and Hoyt both believed their boats to be best in hard wind and so were surprised when the first race was sailed in light airs. Konow appears to have adapted better and won the first race handily. Yachting reported ". . . before the series started out ideas of heavy-weather six-metre boats changed, and the change did not flatter Clytie." Hoyt, one of the best Six skippers ever, did win the next two races, however, but Clytie's success went no further. Noreg outclassed the American in the next two races winning the finale by 3 min. 27 sec. Although Noreg was a big boat, she baffled the Americans with her light air ability. Clinton Crane wrote after the series: "It is a strange thing, and one which none of us are able to explain, that these large, heavy boats, even though they have a large wetted surface, show great speed in light weather. In fact, often if they are loaded down with more weight they are even faster than when they are more lightly laden. That they are fast in heavy winds is quite understandable... ."

 

The first race for the Scandinavian Gold Cup started the very next day. The rules for the Cup award the Cup to the first boat to win three races. After the first three races, boats which have not won a race are eliminated. The first two races were won by Merenneito and May Be respectively. May Be skippered by Sven Salen startled the fleet by "flattening down her reaching balooner" and going from sixth to first in one leg. This was the first time the genoa jib had been seen in American racing.

 

Noreg got her conditions in the third race, the wind blowing a steady 25 knots across Oyster Bay. Winning the first beat, she was hotly pursued down the reaching legs by Salen who made up time at every mark. After a very tight duel in a vicious sea, Noreg beat May Be by 14 seconds and English Rose, skippered by her designer, Morgan Giles, by 39 seconds. The American yachting press called it "a wonderful exhibition of sailing in hard conditions."

 

This left Noreg, May Be and Merenneito with one race each and the other boats were eliminated. May Be won the fourth race in light air and sloppy seas and Merenneito the fifth in light airs and a smooth sea. The fresh breeze returned for the sixth race and Konow took full advantage of it to win the race and tie the series again at two races each. Although she did not win the Cup, Noreg had pushed the Salen boat to the full limit of seven races before the Cup, at last, went to Sweden.

 

Noreg was sold later that year to an American yachtsman, C. H. Thorling who raced both Noreg and the Eight-Metre Rangoon on Long Island Sound in 1928. Thorling sold the boat the following year and she went to Detroit where she joined a group of Sixes including Grebe (US 3), Dauphin (US 26) and others. In the fifties, a group of Port Huron Six-Metre sailors found her and took her to Port Huron for her final sailing. The photos showing her hauled out were taken there.

 

Noreg was broken up in Sarnia, Ontario in 1968.

Text and photos taken from ISMA News, Second Half 1978
Written by Scott Rohrer

 

Owners
1927 - HRH Crown Prince Olav V
1927 - C. H. Thorling - Long Island, NY.
1937 - Mrs. A. H. Whiting - Charlevoix, MI.
1939 - S. Gordon Saunders - Detroit, MI.
1948 - Warehouse Reality Co. - Grosse Pointe, MI.