{"id":3420,"date":"2025-05-03T13:44:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T11:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/?p=3420"},"modified":"2025-05-16T12:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:11:58","slug":"the-expensive-yacht-yankee-doesnt-look-like-a-yacht-anymore-but-a-total-wreck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2025\/05\/03\/the-expensive-yacht-yankee-doesnt-look-like-a-yacht-anymore-but-a-total-wreck\/","title":{"rendered":"“The expensive yacht Yankee doesn’t look like a yacht anymore, but a total wreck”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What was it like to be a crew member on a boat like the “Yankee” \u2013 and how did the dramatic dismasting at Dartmouth unfold for those on board? The diaries of Ole P. Dalland give us a unique insight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From his homestead at \u00d8vra Dalland, Ole P. Dalland (1904\u20131985) like many others from Tysnes had travelled to America to try his luck “over there”. He started yacht sailing in 1928 and was a crew member on the \u201cYankee\u201d in the seasons 1935 and 1936, together with many others from Tysnes. The diaries he kept have been taken care of by his descendants and are valuable sources of insight into this special life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ole P. Dalland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
In delicate handwriting, Ole P. Dalland kept diaries about his life as a crew member on the “Yankee”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 31 August 1935 had looked promising from the start. The day before, the competition was cancelled due to rough conditions, but today the race is on, we can read in the diary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This morning when we came on deck it was raining and blowing quite a bit like yesterday, but after a while it cleared up, so we polished the brass and got the spars and sails ready as usual. After a while they hoisted the flags on the committee boat, announcing that there will be sailing today. So, we weighed anchor and roped outside where there was a strong wind blowing and more like yesterday.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hubris?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A little further down we can read what might explain the drama that was about to unfold<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

At 11 o’clock we crossed the line with the best start we had all summer. We had only broken out a single foresail at the time, but since we couldn’t get away from the other boats, we broke out a double-clewed jib as well and now had a lead over the others.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The J-boats were rigged with two foresails. Two of the other boats had hoisted a storm jib, i.e. a smaller sail, as the second foresail, while “Yankee” had a regular one. Together with a reefed mainsail this probably caused too much and unbalanced pressure on the mast. Was it overconfidence in the pursuit of victory in the last race of the season? Because soon it happens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It had been going well so far, and we were in the lead. But just 20 meters ahead of the first rounding buoy we heard a crash and the next thing we knew, the mast, boom and sails with all the rigging were scattered across the deck and the rest in the sea, and no one knew anything until it was all over.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Could have been worse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The accident is dramatic and soon the other boats come to the rescue. No one wants to sail on, and the race is cancelled. It looks bad, but it could have been worse. Almost as if by a miracle no one is missing or seriously injured:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

[\u2026] two men [were] thrown overboard, but fortunately we get them back up immediately, but several were about to go overboard. There was nothing that gave way on the rigging. It was the mast that could not withstand all the pressure and collapsed one foot above deck and another place 40 feet above deck. But the great miracle was that none of the 27 men, who were lying carefree around on deck, were hurt. Had it happened 5-6 minutes earlier, when all the men were down on the leeward side tightening the spars, there would have been 8-10 fewer men on board. But such is fate. So the first thing we did was to see if all the men were accounted for.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After a while a fishing boat arrives to tow the casualty to shore. It is an arduous operation. It takes over two hours, and on the way in the mast scrapes against the bottom time and time again. The owner of the “Shamrock” has a pleasure yacht nearby and tries to lift the mast up into the davits (devices for attaching lifeboats and other small boats to larger vessels). This was work to no avail, writes Ole P. Dalland:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
DESPONDENT.<\/strong> Body language speaks volumes about the mood after the dismasting. Also note the size of the broken steel mast, which was new for the season. We have reason to believe that the two men in the foreground are Henrik Bakke (left) and Karl Lunde, stateside known as Charles Lunde (right). Photo: Ole P. Dalland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

We had to give it up and tow it up to a shipyard to get some cranes on it and the mast was so stuck in the seabed in some places that we had to have three tugboats on to get it up there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It was hard work to clean up after the dismasting, and the despondency after the accident probably didn’t make it any easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The whole thing, sails and rigging, was appallingly full of filth and dirt, and the top of the mast had broken off on the way in. When everything was loose, it was time to get the sails on board and all the rigging on top of it so it’s lying around here now in a horrible mess.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The day after<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The following day, Sunday 1 September, must have felt more like a blue Monday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Sunday is not something to enjoy for us today because the first thing we had to do was clean up that mess with the rigging and sails and the whole crew spent all morning on it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday afternoon they weighed anchor and were towed to a buoy. There a tugboat would pick them up early the next morning for transport to Gosport, a little further east on the coast. Here the “Yankee” would lie over the winter for repair and preparation for the 1936 season, when Ole P. Dalland would also be on the crew. And he continued to write a diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here at jaattlaget.com we plan to gradually publish more of his stories about life on the “Yankee”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP PHOTO:<\/strong> “When everything was loose, it was time to get the sails on board and all the rigging on top of it so it’s lying around here now in a horrible mess \u2026 so the expensive yacht Yankee doesn’t look like a yacht anymore, but a total wreck.” Photo: Ole P. Dalland<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was it like to be a crew member on a boat like the “Yankee” \u2013 and how did the dramatic dismasting at Dartmouth unfold for those on board? The diaries of Ole P. Dalland give us a unique insight. From his homestead at \u00d8vra Dalland, Ole P. Dalland (1904\u20131985) like many others from Tysnes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,25,24,40,2,26],"tags":[45,41,44,43],"class_list":["post-3420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boats","category-crew-members","category-crews","category-england","category-featured-2","category-sailors","tag-diaries","tag-england","tag-ole-p-dalland","tag-yankee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Totalvrak.jpg?fit=1200%2C745","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IEmy-Ta","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3411,"url":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2025\/04\/01\/when-the-mast-broke-on-yankee\/","url_meta":{"origin":3420,"position":0},"title":"When the mast broke on “Yankee”","author":"Henrik Bakke","date":"1 April , 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It is August 31, 1935. Off Dartmouth on the southwestern coast of England, four magnificent J-class boats are meeting up for the very last race of the season. For the crew of \u201cYankee\u201d, most of whom from Tysnes, it will be a highly dramatic day at sea. Just over twenty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boats"","block_context":{"text":"Boats","link":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/category\/boats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Yankee_dismasted.jpg?fit=1200%2C656&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Yankee_dismasted.jpg?fit=1200%2C656&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Yankee_dismasted.jpg?fit=1200%2C656&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Yankee_dismasted.jpg?fit=1200%2C656&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Yankee_dismasted.jpg?fit=1200%2C656&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3397,"url":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2025\/01\/29\/unique-footage-from-resolute-1926\/","url_meta":{"origin":3420,"position":1},"title":"Unique footage from “Resolute”, 1926","author":"Jarle Petterson","date":"29 January , 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Tysnes yacht sailor museum researcher Knut Arne Gr\u00f8teide has spent numerous hours surveying yacht sailors from Tysnes, accidentally leading him to a video clip from a yacht known to many a Tysnesing, the \"Resolute\", shot in 1926. The clip is an amateur film of a cruise taken by a group\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crew members"","block_context":{"text":"Crew members","link":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/category\/crew-members\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Resolute_1926.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Resolute_1926.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Resolute_1926.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Resolute_1926.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Resolute_1926.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3373,"url":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2025\/01\/23\/a-call-for-crewmen-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":3420,"position":2},"title":"A call for crewmen portraits","author":"Jarle Petterson","date":"23 January , 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For almost 50 years Norwegian crew members dominated the yachts competing in America's Cup and other regattas, many of whom from Tysnes. Last December the Tysnes yacht sailor museum released an online listing of more than 100 of them, inviting descendants to provide pictures and additional information, if available. \"As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crew members"","block_context":{"text":"Crew members","link":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/category\/crew-members\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/crew_list.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/crew_list.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/crew_list.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/crew_list.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/crew_list.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3250,"url":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2024\/08\/14\/tysnes-yacht-sailor-exhibition-in-the-u-s\/","url_meta":{"origin":3420,"position":3},"title":"Tysnes yacht sailor exhibition in the U.S.","author":"Jarle Petterson","date":"14 August , 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In connection with New York Yacht Club's 175th anniversary in 2019 Venelaget for Tysnes J\u00e5ttmuseum was asked to provide relevant objects from the permanent exhibition at Tysnes. The objects, along with a display and the Norwegian Steam video (below) were available for the American public for the duration of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Featured"","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/category\/featured-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Popup_NY.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Popup_NY.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Popup_NY.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Popup_NY.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":568,"url":"http:\/\/jaattlaget.com\/en\/2014\/06\/21\/web-site-finally-in-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":3420,"position":4},"title":"Web site “finally” in English","author":"Jarle Petterson","date":"21 June , 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Following a few months' planning, and just a couple of weeks after the launch in Norwegian, the yacht sailor exhibition charity, commonly known as \"J\u00e5ttlaget\", is proud to present the English edition of its website\u2014even though it's been known to some for a couple of days. 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