Knud Reimers was born in Denmark in 1906. He was taught boat-building and design at the German yard ‘Krupp-Germania Werft’ in Kiel in the 1920s. One of his mentors was the famous yacht designer Henry Rasmussen from Abeking & Rasmussen in Bremen, Germany. Together they shared the ideas and dreams of building faster sailing yachts.
In 1930 Knud Reimers bought the design office run by Gustav Estlander in Stockholm, Sweden, and established himself as a successful Square-Metre yacht designer. With his designs he reduced the extreme lengths the Sq. Metres had reached by this time and gave them more volume over the waterline, which came into play as the wind increased. They resulted in being stiffer, faster and more seaworthy than his competitors designs.
Reimers fame spread quickly and he received design requests from all over the globe. In the 30’s the Emperor of Annam (Vietnam) commissioned two boats: first a 22 Sq. Metre (Loa 36′, Beam 6′, Displ. 1.75 tons) and later a 30 sq. Metre. There were also other popular Reimers designs like the famous ‘Swede 55’ which is one of the most widespread boat types in the world today and is based on the design principles of the 22 and 30 Square Metre class. In 1937 Uffa Fox wrote, “The 30’s designed by Knud Reimers have almost always proved to be the fastest and finest sea boats”.
75 % of those presently building to this class in various parts of the world are to his design.
One of his most successful One Designs is the double-ended offshore racer, the ‘Tumlaren‘. Again clearly inspired by the Square-Metre rule but made to sail offshore. Knud Reimers designed one for himself, Kestrel.
Knud Reimers died in 1987.
