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Yacht Designer Knud Hjelmberg Reimers

Reading Time: 9 minutesRhetorical skill, talent, and luck made the Dane, born in Aarhus in 1906, to Sweden’s widely acknowledged yacht designer. A portrait of the unwavering representative of the elegant and sleek Scandinavian line. The following four anecdotes describe the self-made man who came from modest circumstances, the passionate sailor, the sales-minded and also self-confident Dane. Aboard Agneta in the Solent: In …

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40 Square Metre Boat Aphrodite

Reading Time: 6 minutesFor decades, the largest contiguous fleet of 40 Square Metre Boats has been sailing on Lake Starnberg. An afternoon aboard Aphrodite, one of the latest examples launched by Munich boat builder Helmut Fischer, explains why. Bavarian singer-songwriter and cabaret artist Georg Ringsgwandl once named ‘watching television, drinking and playing golf’ as the Germans’ favourite leisure activity. It would be sad …

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Swede 41 Classic Sleipnir

Reading Time: 6 minutesSeptember 21 Richard Natmeßnig invites me for an afternoon aboard his Swede 41 Classic named Sleipnir. Having spent three unforgettable hours at the tiller of his boat on Fehmarnsund: This is a tempting experience. Swede 41 Classic with a lot of sail area If you are interested in sailing and familiar with Square Metre Boats, you find two observations irritating. …

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40 Square Metre Boat Aurora

Reading Time: 7 minutesThis 13-metre racer is an important boat for the Skerry Cruiser scene in Northern Germany. With Aurora, Georg Milz brought his idea for a sailing event from the 2008 centenary of the Square Metre Class from Stockholm to Fehmarn. She gifted fans of true and classic Skerry Cruisers and their successors, the fabulous Schlank & Rank Regatta. The North German …

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Square Metre Boat: Beam

Reading Time: 5 minutesAdvantages and disadvantages of the slender and long Square Metre Boat, the development of the so-called Skerry Cruiser, and how beam is measured since 1925. A brief look at the compromise between minimal water resistance in light wind and the ability to carry sail in a fresh breeze. Rapid Skerry Cruiser development in the 1910s The slimmer the boat, the …

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Square Metre Boat: A matter of length

Reading Time: 5 minutesWhat is a Skerrycruiser or Skärgårdskryssare? Anything flat-hulled with long overhangs, made of wood, ideally with a glossy finish? This is how most sailors answer this question. In principle, that’s true, since the open design class launched in 1908 for racing in the Stockholm archipelago or Skärgård initially left a lot of freedom. Only the sail area was limited. To …

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Jubilee S40

Reading Time: 9 minutesSkärgårdskryssare also known as Square metre boats, are these slim and flat-hulled boats to enjoy sensational sailing. Sadly, the time aboard ends in the evening, as a classy skerry cruiser offers hardly any comfort. That’s why there is a compromise, the so-called cruising sqm boat. A remarkable variant is the Jubilee S40. How the Jubilee S40 was developed In December …

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Square Metre Boat Regatta Schlank & Rank

Reading Time: 5 minutesAt the end of a busy week, it is nice to visit the weekly market with your loved one and a pretty raffia basket on Saturday. On the way, you have your first or second coffee and find out what the weekend will bring. Sadly, pleasing leisure activity wears out eventually. And in our latitudes there are seasons whose Saturdays …

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Håkan Södergren’s most beautiful boat

Reading Time: 4 minutesCan you design, build and sail a 49-foot boat with stoop height below deck? Yes you can, if you are a Swede and focused on sailing. What a pleasure edging windward, this 55 sqm boat sitting on the ergonomically shaped coaming with small deflections on the tiller. The sensation of dinghy feeling aboard a 15 m racer. The nearly forgotten …

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For sale: 30 Square Metre Boat Contra

Reading Time: 6 minutesChestnut brown mahogany, copper coloured underwater body, inclined modern transom. Stretched keel and an effective rudder blade. A serious spar on top. This boat has been the nightmare of Square Metre Boat sailors at Lake Constance in the eighties in the first version. Contra as a modern 30 sqm Skärgårdskryssare At that time, Dr. Klaus Müller from Überlingen, had successful …