Camper & Nicholsons Yachting

Charles Nicholson before and during the First World War

The 380 ton schooner MARGHERITA, built in 1913 with Yard # 207, was designed by Charles E. Nicholson to the 1st International A Class Schooner Rule for Major G. Cecil Whitaker. She was of composite construction and built to comply with Lloyd’s + 100 A1 requirements.

Margherita was launched on the 8th of May, 1913, and was probably the fastest sailing yacht Charles ever designed. This helped secure Sir Thomas Lipton’s order for SHAMROCK IV for the 1914 America’s Cup. But we will write about this yacht and her story in the next Newsletter.

At the Kiel regatta soon after her launch, Margherita took five firsts in six races against the largest and most powerful yachts of the day: Meteor, Germania and Westward.

Read the full Camper & Nicholsons Archive December 2021 Newsletter here: https://bit.ly/31GcAOh

Charles Nicholson and the Metric Classes | October Newsletter

On January 15, 1906 the YRA (Yacht Racing Association) organised an international meeting in London between the heads of the associations of the various European countries that had established regulations for the rating and construction of racing yachts. The purpose of the meeting was to agree on a single international rule.

Following this important meeting of the most famous naval engineers and yacht designers, the basis for an agreement was established. On October 14th, 1907 in Paris the representatives of European nations interested in yachting unanimously approved the results of the International Conference and created the IYRU (International Yacht Racing Union) and the international racing rules. Ratings were expressed in metres, so the new racing yachts would be called Metrics, and classes of fixed ratings were established. The most successful classes, some of which are still in use today are the 5.5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15,19, and 23.
In 1906, Charles Ernest Nicholson designed Nyria (C&N Newsletter N°4), in accordance to the Lloyds Register for yachts. Formulated a few years earlier, the rules define specifications for materials and have since proved to be a great guarantee in creating standards for racing yacht construction.

Following Nicholson's success, at the 1907 International Conference the designers and yachtsmen representing European yachting gave Lloyds Registers, Bureau Veritas and Germanishe Lloyds the task of regulating the sizing and classification of metric yachts by laying down Scantling Rules which were to be adapted and verified during construction by ship register experts. Only then would boats of the metric classes be classified as rugged and seaworthy and be registered with an R for Racer. The following sentence was approved: "The metric class yacht must be a sailing vessel that combines habitability, strength and speed."

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1 - 15 metre cutter ISTRIA
2 - 15 metre cutter Istria and Paula III
3 - 23 metre cutter Brynhild II
4 - The Architects of the first "Metrics"

Read more via https://bit.ly/3AmJaAI

August 2021 Newsletter.

Quoting the July 2012 article from Lloyd Register, ‘The History of International Yachting & The America’s Cup’, we find the great cultural, scientific importance and foresight of Charles Nicholson in the Yachting History.

In 1906, Charles E. Nicholson of Camper and Nicholson succeeded in persuading a client to build a large racing yacht to the Lloyd's Register Rules for Yachts, formulated some years earlier. The yacht was Nyria and she proved that strength and speed could be successfully combined. This example was instrumental in a decision by a new international rating committee, that included the Yacht Racing Association, to establish scantlings for racing yachts and make Lloyd's Register class mandatory for all racing yachts built to the International Rule (IYRU Metre class). This came into effect throughout Europe on January 1st, 1907. The Rule was to stay in force for 10 years, and was then extended to 1919 when the Second Rule was launched. The 1933 Third Rule is still in use, albeit with some modifications.

Nyria lasted for many years: adapting to changes in rules and rating regulations, among the first boats to adopt the Marconi rig when it came into vogue, she continued her life as an excellent cruising vessel.

This example was instrumental in the decision for the new International Metric Rule to apply Lloyd's regulations for construction. The great George Lennox Watson, designer of Britannia and Valkyrie II in 1893, and of over 400 other boats, most of which were masterpieces, was the most respected structuralist of his day. He never designed metric boats because he died at the end of 1904 (and Metric Rules came into effect in 1907), but his words of praise are those of the Lloyds engineers who provided the correct sizing of structures for the construction of wooden, steel and composite yachts. Watson said: “Trained designers and experienced, educated yachtsmen have no difficulty and will have no problem in choosing a yacht's structural design on their own, but ordinary people have a great reverence for Lloyds' charts, which are like the Pommery label on a bottle of Champagne, the certainty of the goodness of the product. It's a matter of trust!”

Read the full August newsletter at: https://bit.ly/3rVOzfu

COQUETTE :
Ben Nicholson son, Charles Ernest Nicholson started designing in the 1880’s, and in 1891 his famous COQUETTE was designed to the Length and Sail Area Rule as a lug rigged 0.5 Rater. This small, yet winning racer (110 prizes were won by 1898), was built for Mr. Edward Jessop.

Visit the Camper and Nicholsons Archive at https://www.cnyachting.com/the-archive/

CALL FOR THESIS

The archive of the Camper & Nicholson shipyard has recently been rediscovered and partially digitized. In collaboration with the yacht designer and historian Enrico Zaccagni, a cycle of master's degree theses is proposed with the following guidelines: to analyze the archive’s documentary, iconographic and technical material; to propose effective categorization and cataloging methods to aid design activity; to outline recognizable design parameters typical of the shipyard and evaluate their evolution; to elaborate guidelines for the nautical restoration process, both philological and historical; to apply the knowledge acquired through design case studies.



Learn more at cnyachting.com

The Camper and Nicholsons Archive was compiled over the years by the late Jeremy Lines. The web presentation includes all 3,456 vessels for which information was found, though for many vessels the only data found was the basic data: the vessel’s name, LOA, type and rig and building material.

Visit the Camper and Nicholsons Archive at https://www.cnyachting.com/the-archive/