The Square Metre Boat as invented in 1908 was built in various classes from 15 und 150 sqm. Thanks to its elegance and fun aboard it was soon admired also beyond Swedish waters. Due to his international contacts in 1955, Knud Reimers drew a 22 sqm class boat for a client in Chicago. Soon other wooden examples followed and even a small fleet of glass fibre boats were built later, with the first launched already in 1967. The 22 m2 One Design class named Udell.
Besides the exceptional fact, that there was a small, for years regularly racing fleet on Lake Michigan, the Udell is remarkable as it became the template for the modern Cruising Square Metre Boat variants with risen freeboard and slightly more comfort below deck: in particular the S30, followed by Swede 55 and Jubilee S40 and boat by other designers.
For the windy waters of shallow Lake Michigan with short and steep waves, Reimers designed a boat measuring 11 × 2 m with a raised freeboard and a long cabin. In 1963, this became the American Udell 22 Onedesign. In 1967, Reimers revised his plans for GRP series production with a slightly raised cabin. It is obvious that Reimers used this concept to develop the S30 with a little higher deckhouse. Even the windshield-like splash cap at the end of the stretched structure appears in his S30 design few years later.
Photo on top: Udell 22 by Robert Christie. Published November 1, 2025, updated November 1, 2025.→ Subscribe to the newsletter, and you won’t miss future articles.
