Ziergöhl
The Ziergöhl or Göhl for short refers to the lateral bow and stern decoration of a mostly classic yacht and is the trademark of the shipyard or the designer.
The embossing, grooved and painted into the ship's side, underlines the lines of the yacht, emphasizes the jump and stretches the side view with a single, usually fine line. On classic yachts, the Ziergöhl is usually laid out with gold leaf, which is complex and time-consuming. The Göhl particularly refines natural lacquered mahogany or stands out in contrast to the dark green, dark blue or black hull. The mostly used colors for the Ziergöhl are gold and silver. The Ziergöhl with their specially designed front and aft ends belong to a classic yacht like the lavishly exposed and carefully restored stucco ceiling of an old house.
In the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area, the Ziergöhl is called the coverline , the decorations on the fore and aft are called scrollwork or fashionboard . In his standard work The American Fishing Schooners, Howard Chapelle has documented the mostly yellow painted Göhl of the Newfoundland schooners and their bow ornaments climbing around the anchors with many drawings. This foreship decoration was adopted by the tall ships, the foredeck of which was lavishly decorated behind the jib boom and figurehead . Just as the sports boat has been developed and cultivated from the work boat over the centuries, the Göhl and the bow and stern decorations have been refined in a yacht-typical manner.
In the course of the 20th century, the bow and stern decoration became more contemporary. The discreetly ending Ziergöhl was created from imaginative flourishes and elaborately ornamented rear sections. The New York design office Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) launched the famous Dorade yacht in 1929 with extremely simple Göhlenden. The legendary yawl only carried a simple arrow on the bow. The yacht yard Nautor in Finland, whose yachts (Swan) S&S designed for decades, adopted this stylistic element of the sea bream. The painted arrow on the bow and the blade-like end of the Ziergöhl became Nautor's trademark.
The Ziergöhl varies with the size of the boat - the width and format of the bow and stern decorations are adapted to the overall appearance. Last but not least, the Göhl's job is to make the ship's side look smaller. Even modern yachts made of steel and plastic usually have decorative stripes painted in or colored in the gelcoat . Sporty yachts, such as those from X-Yachts from Denmark, use the stylistic element of the decorative stripe in a modified form with three broad stripes over the water pass . Here too, as with the Göhl, the origin of the yachts can be recognized straight away; at the same time, this style element makes the freeboard appear lower.
Ziergöhl well-known yacht builders
- Børresens Bådebyggeri, Vejle (Denmark) the Göhl runs out in three points
- Abeking & Rasmussen (Lemwerder near Bremen) Bow: staggered arrow, stern: ear of wheat
- William Fife (Scotland), bow: scorpionfish with wavy tongue and canine tooth
- Nautor's Swan (Finland) bow: arrow, stern: blade
- Sangermani (Italy) bow and stern: three dots that are becoming smaller (corresponds to the S of the Morse code )
- Camper & Nicholsons (England) Bow: dot or short line, stern: subtle tail
Web links
- Ziergöhl: Yacht Dorade (S&S), stern area
- Ziergöhl: Yacht Stormy Weather (S&S), stern area
- Example: Ziergöhl on the 7 KR cruiser Greta, built in 1964
