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 motoryachts at the time. He worked as apprentice at :de:Abeking & Rasmussen|Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder under the supervision of Henry Rasmussen. 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 Transatlantic Race of 1950.
Reimers went on to design cruisers, offshore racers and a large number of exclusive sailing and motor yachts. Reimers boats are available in numerous countries worldwide and boats are 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 | – | 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 |
Further notes: 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.