German Frers

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German Frers (born July 4, 1941 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine yacht designer and a design office named after him.

Career

He began his career as a draftsman in his father's design office when he was 15 while still at school. In 1958 he designed the first 10-meter regatta yacht . In 1965 he went to New York to join the Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) yacht design office . During the three-year collaboration, he rose to the position of chief designer within the company and designed a number of models that later became classics in their respective yacht classes. In 1968 German Frers left S&S, lived and worked in New York and designed the yachts' Beau Geste , Wizard of Paget , Quest of Paget and Simba for American customers .

Argentina

In 1970 he returned to Buenos Aires and joined the design office founded by his father in 1928. With the yacht Matrero , the first draft after his return, he had great success with the Argentine team at the Admiral's Cup in English waters off Cowes in 1971 . The yacht made the Argentine design internationally acceptable. In the Admiral's Cup that followed, the Argentine yacht Recluta, designed by German Frers, came second against the strongest international competitors. Then its construction, the American yacht Scaramouche, won the winter regattas in Florida (USA) and achieved four victories in the Onion Patch Trophy , the American counterpart to the European Admiral's Cup. With this construction, German Frers had achieved its international breakthrough. He has over 500 different successful yacht designs for European, American, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand customers.

Europe

In 1989, German Frers went to Italy to lead the Moro di Venezia design team for the 27th America's Cup challenge . Its design won the first world championship in the newly created America's Cup class in May 1991. Its design set the parameters and the trends for all challengers and defenders in the future. Il moro di Venezia V won the Louis Vuitton Cup in the final against New Zealand and became the first European yacht since 1934 to challenge the America's Cup. After the experiences in the America's Cup, German Frers opened his own design office in Italy, under the management of his son German Frers junior, in order to be able to better meet the demand of the European market in cooperation with the offices in Spain and Argentina.

German Frer's extremely successful designs can still be found at all important international regattas. His collaborations range from Nautor's Swan ( Finland ), Hallberg-Rassy ( Sweden ) and Wally Yachts ( Monaco ) to the Volvo Ocean Race yacht designs.

Yacht designs from the German Frers office

  • Scaramouche I and II
  • Noryema IX and X
  • Recluta
  • Hitchhiker
  • Retaliation I and II
  • Ragamuffin I and II
  • Congere
  • Bribon IV and V (owner: King Juan Carlos of Spain )
  • Nitissima
  • Enteara
  • Volcano
  • Kodiak
  • Flyer II
  • Bumble Bee
  • Guia 2000
  • approx. 25 maxi yacht designs including:
    • boomerang
    • Kialoa V
    • Ondine VIII
    • Matador
    • Il Moro di Venezia I , II and III
    • Rebecca
    • Pacific

These popular regatta yachts have won major trophies including the Admiral's Cup , Onion Patch , Bermuda Race , Transpacific Race , Whitbread Round the World Race and many more.

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