George Lennox Watson

The Valkyrie III in 1895 off New York

George Lennox Watson (* 1851 in Glasgow , Scotland ; † 1904 , ibid) was the first professional yacht designer in Great Britain, who at the end of the 19th century had designed over 430 ships, including 300 large and successful regatta yachts , and who had a major impact on yacht design of his time.

Life path

Watson began his career as a boat builder and yacht designer at William Pearce's boatyard on the River Clyde in Scotland. William Pearce's shipyard was known as the ideal training facility for young boat builders. It was here that Watson received his training and knowledge of ship construction, which later earned him his worldwide reputation as a leading yacht designer.

George Lennox Watson was the first designer to set up his own design office for yachts in Glasgow in 1873. Until now, yacht construction has always been linked to a shipyard and has usually been carried out by the shipyard manager himself (see Abeking & Rasmussen and Henry Rasmussen ).

Watson immediately had great success in the UK with his groundbreaking designs. He designed yachts with great draft and a lot of ballast in the keel . These yachts had an outstanding sailing properties to the wind as they could sail upright and not so much krängten (after Lee tended). Your drift has been significantly improved.

breakthrough

In 1879, the yacht Madge designed by him faced competition in the US sailing center New York . Similar to the then outstanding Yacht America on the Solent in 1851 , Madge now beat all the yachts she competed against. With this overwhelming success of his design, not only his domestic but also his international reputation for being a designer of fast racing yachts increased.

America's Cup

George Lennox Watson's best yacht designs include British America's Cup challengers Thistle (1887), Valkyrie II (1893), Valkyrie III (1895) and Shamrock II (1899). His designs influenced the design of America's Cup yachts for decades.

Prominent customers

Outstanding was the design of the racing yacht HMY Britannia for the Prince of Wales and later King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Edward VII and the design of the racing yacht Meteor II for the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Watson also designed the state yacht for the US President who have favourited Mayflower . But not all designs were successful. The Vineta, built in Kiel in 1895 on behalf of Wilhelm II, proved to be unsuccessful and only suitable for regattas to a limited extent. It was given as a gift to Duke Friedrich Ferdinand of Schleswig-Holstein, who passed it on to the Hamburg shipowner and businessman Robert Eduard Loesener in an exchange .

New technic

George Lennox Watson was one of the first yacht designers to take into account test series of yacht models in water tanks in their designs, a technique first developed by Robert Edmund Froude .

Watson designed a revolutionary new lifeboat . Originally powered by sails and the wind or by rowers, petrol engines were installed after his death in 1904. Some examples were used in rescue operations until 1960 and are still used today as leisure boats.

Influence on other yacht designers

From the design office of George Lennox Watson came such well-known yacht designers as Alfred Mylne and JR Barnett . Alfred Mylne left the office in 1897 to start his own business. Barnett and Watson worked very closely together in the construction of very elegant steam yachts. After Watson's death in 1904, Barnett took over the business and designed yachts such as the Liberty , Sapphire , Sunbeam II, and Nahlin .

Todays situation

George Lennox Watson's yacht design office GLWatson & Co. Ltd. is now in Liverpool , but no longer has any connection with the Watson family.

Famous sailing yachts from Watson

• Madge
• Thistle
• Irene ( Prince Heinrich of Prussia )
• Valkyrie II
• Valkyrie III
• HMY Britannia (King Edward VII, King George V)
• Shamrock II (Sir Thomas Lipton )
• Vanduara
• Queen Mab
• Meteor II (Kaiser Wilhelm II.)
• Bona
• Rainbow
• Mayflower (US President's yacht)
• Vineta (1895) built in Kiel by order of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Honors

• 1903: Namesake of the Watson Peninsula in Antarctica
• 1995: Member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame

Web links

• Portrait photo: George Lennox Watson
• Website: GLWatson & Co. Ltd. engl.
• Biography: George Lennox Watson engl.

Commons : George Lennox Watson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

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1. ↑ Life path of GL Watson ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009  
2. ↑ classicyachting.net: Biography of George Lennox Watson ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009 
3. ↑ America's Cup Hall of Fame - George Lennox Watson  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009  
4. ↑ Two days before his death, he received the design order from Wilhelm II for a new Meteor III . The yacht was then designed by the American Cary Smith.
5. ↑ America's Cup Hall of Fame - George Lennox Watson  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009  
6. ↑ Watson Lifeboat.Retrieved January 25, 2009
7. ↑ Life path of GL Watson ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009  
8. ↑ Life path of GL Watson ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009  
9. ↑ America's Cup Hall of Fame - George Lennox Watson  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 25, 2009