|
Gustav Estlander, Yacht Designer |
|
Born in 1876 and an educated architect with ice-skating as hobby, Gustav Estlander started designing yachts at the age of 22. His first boat designs where more of an experimental class and none of them are noted as very successful.
In 1910 Gustav Estlander designed his first International Meter Rule Yacht, Aldebaran and this was followed by another R yacht in 1914, Irene. Other yachts during this time period in Gustav Estlander life where more of the cruising type of yachts.
In 1916 Gustav Estlander designed his first 22 square meter yacht, Colibri. This was followed in 1917 by another 22, Colibri II, which became very successful on the racing scene. For the 1919 season Gustav Estlander was a popular designer for the square meter boats and this is normally when you say that his design success started.
During the years 1921 to 1923 Gustav Estlander worked as the chief designer for the Pabst-Werft (“Yard”) in Berlin, Germany.
Gustav Estlander was also a successful sailor himself. He crewed on an Int. 6mR yacht he had designed, MayBe, together with Salen and won the Swedish gold cup in 1927.
Gustav Estlander designed many successful yachts, during the 1930’s he was dominating the racing scene in Sweden. In 1929 he had designed 5 of the 8 starting yachts in the SkerryCruiser Cup and in 1930 he had designed 5 of the 7 starting for the same cup.
Gustav Estlander also designed the M22 in 1930, a cheaper version of a square meter yacht as they where getting to expensive to build. His biggest and most reputable design is with out doubt the big 150 square meter yacht Singoalla. Not only was she one of a very few ever built for this large class, but she was also filled with bad luck. Her owner could not agree with the yard that built her, she was later returned to Gustav Estlander and in the end, Singoalla was lost in a yard fire in Germany.
In total Estlander designed about 350 yachts. Among them are one 150 square meter yacht, three 95 square meter yachts, four 75 square meter yachts, eight 55 square meter yachts and numerous smaller square meter yachts. He also designed International Meter Rule yachts, 25 – Int. 6m R yachts, and 8 Int. 8m R yachts, 2 Int. 10m R yachts and finally one Int. 12m R yacht. Some of Gustav Estlander’s designs: Singoalla 150 square meter yacht
Bacchant 30 Square meter yacht
MayBe Int 6m R yacht |
Yacht Designers 