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George Lennox Watson, Yacht Designer |
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Watson started out his yacht building and design carrer by a Clyde shipbuilder named William Pearce. Pearce was well known for producing a high quality training for young shipbuilders. Here Watson got his knowledge of ship construction that would later earn him a world wide reputation as a leading yacht designer.
George Lennox Watson was the the person who set up the first yacht design office in the world. This happened in 1873 in Glasgow, Scotland. He imidiatly became a success in great Brittan with his ground breaking designs. George Lennox Watson designed yachts with deep draft and large ballast ratio that produced a superior wind ward performance.
In 1879 his yacht MADGE came to New York and much like the earlier yacht AMERICA she beat anything she sailed against. With a close to perfect racing record for the yacht, George Lennox Watson international yacht design popularity took off and he was soon established not only as a great and popular British designer but one of a world wide reputation for designing fast racing yachts.
Among his most famous designes are such yachts as the Americas cup challengers THISTLE in 1887, VALKYRIE II in 1893, VALKYRIE III in 1895 and SHAMROCK II in 1899. Other famous designes from George Lennox Watson are yachts like Vanduara, Queen Mab, Meteor II, Bona and Rainbow.
George Lennox Watson was also on the forfront when it came to testing yacht designs using models in water tanks, a thechnique first developed by R.E. Froude.
The design office of George Lennox Watson also grew such legendary designers as Alfred Mylne and J. R. Barnett who got there training in the Watson office. Much of the credit for the elegant steam yacht designs during the 1890’s that came from the Watson office where perfected by Barnett who was the one that worked closely with Watson in these designs. In 1904 following Watsons death the office was taken over by Barnett who came to design such great yachts as Liberty, Sapphire
Watson has always been considered as one of the greatest yacht designers in the world and some of the yachts he designed are still today racing on classic yacht circuits in the world.
Yachts designed by George Lennox Watson:
MADGE
THISTLE
VALKYRIE II
VALKYRIE III
SHAMROCK II
VANDUARA
QUEEN MAB
METEOR II
RAINBOW |
Yacht Designers 