Knud Reimers

Knud Reimers was one of the most important Scandinavian yacht designers of the 20th century.

Biography

Knud Hjelmberg Reimers was born in Århus, Denmark and educated as a shipwright in Germany at Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in the twenties, a yard building large sailing and motor yachts at the time. He worked as an apprentice at Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder under the supervision of . His first employment was in Stockholm at the design studio of the famous naval architect Gustaf Estlander. When Estlander suddenly died at the age of 54 in 1930, the 25-year-old Reimers bought his design practice. He promptly sold six 22m² Skerry cruisers to the Detroit Yacht Club. He later drew plans for the great 75m² Skerry cruiser Bacchant that furthered his reputation as a designer of fast cruisers and racers.
Reimers most celebrated construction is the Tumlare which was designed in the early 1930s, and became a popular class worldwide. Examples are to be found all round the Baltic, in the UK, North America and Australia. After owning the Tumlare Zara, Adlard Coles bought a 32' 'Large Tumlare' Cohoe, with which he won the RORC's Transatlantic Race from Newport, Rhode Island of 1950.
Reimers went on to design cruisers, offshore racers and numerous exclusive sailing and motor yachts. Reimers boats are available in numerous countries worldwide, and boats are occasionally still built to his designs. His drawing archives are at the Maritime Museum in Stockholm. Reimers also designed Motor yachts, e.g. Orwell Class, 25’, and Swedish Express, 50’,.
Reimers was also a lecturer, and produced films of races like the Tall Ships Race, Bermuda Race, Fastnet Race and Atlantic Race. Knud Reimers argued that in offshore race sailing, the final test is to create boats that can travel at sea in any weather, and said : "The boat is the means to reach the treasure beyond the horizon".

List of Knud Reimers yacht designs

Reimers designed numerous yachts for the metre Rule and square Metre or Skerry cruiser rule classes; they are known variously by length in metres or feet, and also often by their square metre rating etc. which together with the re-use of several names may justify this table as an attempt towards clarifying the confusing variety of naming conventions.

Year	Class or Boat Name	LOA Ft	Beam Ft	Builders Name	Number Built	Notes
1933	Tumlare			Various	"At least 200" "Some 600"	20m²
1934	Scharenkreuzer 30SQM			Various
1934	Hocco					28m² on a Tumlare Hull for sailing on lake Geneva
1934	5½ S9 Blåsut			Williams, Motala		Nordisk Kryssare 5½ S9 Blåsut Similar 5.5m Nordic Cruiser here
1936	Bacchant					; -original Bacchant was an Estlander 30m² design, 1928
1937	Stortumlare aka Albatross			–	No. 11 built 1939	Numerous Examples on the web; 30m²
1937	Havsornen			Holms Batvarv		Seems to have been designed jointly by Reimers and Tore Holm -Built in Holms' yard and often attributed solely to him
1939	Siska			–		Knud Reimers 40m² boat modified for the Sydney-Hobart Race
1941 Onwards	Scharenkreuzer S22			–		36’ given in 22m²
1948	Agneta					Yawl
1940	Squall					Yawl
1955	Udell one design			Raymond Creekmore	11 in North America	Note: a one design sub-class of the 22m² class named after Clare Udell Chicago YC 1953
1955	Cameleon Class			Various	'2 dozen built for 1956'	cf forum on classicboat.co.uk
1960	:sv:Bacchant IV			Vasteras Fiberplast	ca. 100	Bacchant III a one design yawl
1964	Bijou			e.g. I. Beck & Sohne, Bodensee		classic 30 m² built in southern Germany. cf Bijou II in N America
1964	sv:Fingal 27	28’ given in		Fisksatra Varv	ca. 200	Supplied in kit form and fitted out to a variety of interior designs
1972	S 30 cf also S30-93			AB Fisksatra varv, Sweden; Crown Yacht, Sweden	'305' according to -111, built between ‘30s and ‘90s, are listed at	30 sqm The project name was originally Gota 30 which was later changed to O 30 and finally to S 30. Types A30 and S30; Sometimes Swede 41/ S30: aka Skerry41 30m²/ 41ft Loa
1975	:sv:Swede 55	53’		Crown Yacht, Sweden	35	designed at request of some of Stockholms Royal Swedish Yacht Club members 55m² aka SWEDE 52
1982	Jubilee S40			Tufa Marin.	9	designed to celebrate Remiers' 50th anniversary as a yacht designer, 4 boats in Germany and 5 in Sweden. 40m²
1986	SK 30/40			Jansson & Zarin	7	30m²/ 40 ft Loa
1993	S30-93			AB Fisksatra varv, Sweden; Crown Yacht, Sweden	'305' according to -111, built between ‘30s and ‘90s, are listed at	1993 updated version of S30, with increased sail area by extending the boom and increasing the foretriangle: at this stage the original was termed 'S30 classic' -see also :sv:S 30

Further notes regarding designs

Sensa is given as a 5m class; 6m designs are mentioned; a number of individual boats to Reimers' designs are listed on the Australian square metre association website, e.g. Wings 44’, 1938/ Joyous- plans 1958/ Lady in Red: similarly, Jibslist mentions the 41' Gota and the 42'8" Scharenkreuzer 40S.

Further notes regarding specific boats

Landfall / Flicka – in April 1937, Reimers ordered the first 4 Albatross to be built by Oscar Schelin, Kungsors Batvarv, Sweden. They were finished in March, 1938. #4 was named Landfall by the buyer and shipped to Texas. As of February, 2017, this remarkable boat is 79 years old, has had 10 owners and four names; she is being restored as Flicka in Port Hadlock, Washington.