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STAVANGER


“A good sailer, perhaps the best that Colin Archer built for us”


REDNINGSSELSKAPET


Above left: Designer and builder Colin Archer, with the RS William Edgar in build Above: The original redningskøyte (rescue boat) Colin Archer


Stavanger served for 38 years in the NSSR, from 1901 to 1938; she saved 53 sailors ‘from certain death’ and went to the assistance of some 2,996 vessels. For most of this time, she was based in Titran on the island of Frøya, halfway up the west coast, near Trondheim. As the rescue boats became absorbed into the communities they served, they inevitably took on other roles, such as taking doctors to treat the sick or injured, and delivering mail if the mail ships weren’t running. On 12 January 1908, Stavanger was asked to fetch a midwife from Hallaren, about 20 miles to the east of Titran. But the midwife seems not to have enjoyed the ride, as the log suggests: “Wind southwest storm with rain... Got the midwife onboard and left Hallaren at 2pm. Two reefs in both jib and mainsail, as the wind was blowing foam and there were big waves. The midwife became so seasick that we had to tack to Bustvik [approx 2 miles east of Titran], so she could walk the rest of the way. Let go anchor at Bustvik at 7pm.” Like most NSSR boats, Stavanger sailed with the fishing fleets from October to May and was then refitted and laid up for the summer, when the weather was fair. She earned a reputation as a seakindly vessel and seems to have been looked upon with special affection by the men who sailed her. When she was eventually sold into private hands in 1938 for the sum of NKr 6,300, the NSSR wrote a letter to the new owners wishing them luck with the ship and describing her as “a good sailer, perhaps the best that Colin Archer ever built for us”.


36 CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012


So far, so much like many other redningskøyter sold off after giving long and valuable service under the NSSR – except that Stavanger’s new owners, Jul and Lillerut Nielsen were not like many other owners. Both were experienced sailors in their own right: Jul had owned a pair of spidsgatters (double-ended yachts) on which he had sailed across the North Sea, far beyond the boats’ usual range, while Lillerut had saved up since primary school to have her own spidsgatter built. After hiding Stavanger in the Oslofjord during the war, they undertook a minimal conversion in 1946, including fitting an engine and a WC. For the next 12 years, they sailed the boat far and wide, cruising to Spain and the Caribbean long before such voyages became the norm for North European sailors.


RACING CELEBRITY


In 1947 they took part in one of the first post-war races, from Blyth in Scotland to Kristiansand in Norway, finishing second, and in 1955 they had the boat shipped to Newport, RI, to compete in the Transatlantic Race to Marstrand, in Germany, when Norway’s most celebrated war hero Leif Larsen (‘Shetland Larsen’) was one of the crew – and for a time Stavanger became something of a celebrity in Norwegian sailing circles. Tragedy struck, however, when Jul died in a boating accident during a cruise to the Mediterranean in 1958, and Lillerut was left to look after the boat and their five-year-old son Jeppe on her own. Even then, there was


REDNINGSSELSKAPET


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