The Ohlson brothers were born on Orust in 1918 (Einar) and 1920 (Carl-Erik) and taught themselves to sail. After appropriate training, they set up their own business as yacht designers in 1951. As early as 1952, they achieved an early success by winning a bronze medal with the 5.5 "Hojwa", which also made them internationally recognised. In the years that followed, their work was closely linked to the development of the 5.5, which was regarded as Formula 1 in international competitive sailing until the end of the 1960s. From 1952 to 1968, the class was an Olympic event, and boats from Ohlson won medals at every Games, usually several at once.
World-famous brand
While Carl-Erik left the business in 1957, Einar Ohlson, a shrewd businessman, built up a flourishing company together with his wife Wallis. Without their own shipyard Yachts constructed according to customer requirements The first of these was completed by various shipyards as a commission from the Ohlson engineering office and delivered under the "Ohlson Yachts" brand.
Construction drawings and film recordings for the public
Einar Ohlson's daughter Christina Stenberg and the German owner Lutz v. Meyerinck have now begun to preserve the Ohlsons' life's work. More than 1600 construction drawings and 20 hours of video material have already been collected. Whilst the drawings are gradually being copied from the Swedish Veteranbåtsarkivet are scanned and published, videos are created on individual topics of the life's work, which are then published on the website of the Ohlson Project. www.ohlsonyachts.com will be shown. The first video is already online.
Lasse Johannsen
Deputy Editor in Chief YACHT
