Admittedly, as a sailor you have to swallow for a moment. But then you have to take your hat off to the man. He is regarded as the man who put the Swedes on the water. What he achieved was not granted to many designers - although there were plenty of them in his home country. However, only his 1,200 or so designs are so characteristic that the name underneath them has become synonymous - albeit not with one type of sailing boat.
We are talking about Carl Gustaf Pettersson, known as "Cege" for short, the father of the Swedish motor yacht. A "Pettersson boat" will always be associated with a slim, varnished mahogany motorboat with a raised foredeck and the so-called ear at its aft end, that characteristically curved bow. It is also rumoured that Pettersson's tendril-like designs had a strong influence on the Swedish birth rate. Rumour has it that the cramped bunks on his ships made it impossible to set sail with a Pettersson and his wife without the lady returning to land pregnant.
"But that," Arne Lorenzen clarifies as he greets and marvels at his boat, was not the reason he decided to buy the "Eol"; he already has twins, he adds with a laugh. This fact merely explains why the boats have grown with his daughters over the years: "I want to be able to sleep on them."
The only Petterson boat from Germany
His youngest eldest, the "Eol", measures over 13.15 metres and is already the fourth Pettersson that Arne has had brought to Berlin from Sweden. He says he would have preferred to have brought the ship across the Baltic himself last year and saved the 5,000 euros in transport costs. But then he waves it off. "It's just a good thing I didn't do that. Disaster ..." The previous owner had installed the impeller incorrectly. The water pump drew in secondary air, the engine ran hot, and it's hard to imagine the rest. "It could all have ended very, very badly. For man and material," says Lorenzen. Possibly died on the journey home ...
The "Eol" was built in Köpenick in 1921 for a Swedish industrialist. More precisely, at the Pabst shipyard, which at the time was run by another famous ship designer from Scandinavia: the Finn Gustaf Estlander. He was known for his racing yachts and fast skerry cruisers. "It's lucky that the ship was delivered to Sweden back then," says her new owner. The "Eol" is not only the only Pettersson boat ever built in Germany, but also one of the few surviving wooden motor yachts that were built in this country before the war.
The substance is very good, thanks to the fine Honduras mahogany. Lorenzen takes the typical signs of ageing in his stride. Although he hadn't seen any gaps between the planks on land, the alternator and starter motor had sunk. "I spent the night on board with two pumps. I had to check every twenty minutes to make sure they weren't running dry." No sleeping allowed. But what don't you do when you're newly in love?
Melt-in-the-mouth proportions
It's April, the sun is moody. And the excitement builds as the former director's yacht is stripped of its tarpaulin and cake stand, almost like the unveiling of a monument. As if on cue, the sky opens up and the sun shines on the ship, making the mahogany really glow. The rest is amazement and silence. The proportions of the elegant saloon boat are sure to melt the heart of any classic car enthusiast. It lies there on the jetty like a Sleeping Beauty that wants to be kissed awake for the season after slumbering in winter storage. "I hope she feels at home here, in her native climes," says Arne Lorenzen.
However, this may be doubted for a moment. At the moment, his Pettersson is moored in Toni's shipyard in Spandau - a place with the charm of a scrapping yard and the atmosphere of a summerhouse colony. The new owner feels the same way: "I'll sign for my new berth tomorrow."
Arne wants to head over to Alte Liebe, a marina next to a popular Berlin restaurant, our destination for today. Casting off is real manual labour. Together we push the boat into position. With a turning circle of around 40 metres, Toni's marina is far too narrow for the 13-metre boat. You have to create a suitable environment for an almost 100-year-old. Arne is even considering installing a bow thruster so that she can sail off on her own. "Sacrilege or not," he says, why not combine the good old with the new sensible? "You can't see it, it's below the waterline."
Pettersson's credo: One knot of speed per metre of boat length
To minimise water resistance and make the ships as fast as possible, the slim hull is one of the key design features of Pettersson's boats. His designs are always four to five times as long as they are wide, and in some ships even up to six times as long. Pettersson's aim was for a ship to travel at around one knot per metre of length and thus be at least as fast as it was long. Today, the "Eol" manages almost double that. Zero vibration, with a top speed of 22.5 knots - when the owner is travelling alone.
Anyone who has something against water, whether from the front or above, doesn't go to sea anyway." (C. G. Pettersson)
As you accelerate, you almost tip backwards. The foredeck rises, and behind it a white bridal train rises over the Havel. Ahead is a moderately high windscreen, which certainly only keeps out the worst of the bad weather and Baltic waves. Pettersson's first ships had no protection at all, true to his motto: "Anyone who has something against water, whether from the front or above, doesn't go to sea anyway." But many of his customers obviously saw things differently. After all, as a ship designer, you were also a service provider.
That was Carl Gustaf Pettersson
Pettersson listened to the customers' wishes and made his own suggestions. He was willing to compromise - still better than milking cows. C. G. Pettersson was actually supposed to take over his parents' farm on the island of Ramsø. But his passion was not for farming and cattle. From an early age, he was interested in boats, perhaps because they were the key to getting off the island. Even as a child, the future designer practised carving and developed a feel for pleasing lines and shapes at an early age.
After leaving school, Pettersson began an apprenticeship with Julius Frodé, a pioneer and inventor in engine and shipbuilding, where he designed his first small boats, sailing canoes and ice yachts. He then founded a small boatyard in the Stockholm archipelago with his brothers. Their first successes came quickly. Word got round that their boats reached a reasonable speed with little engine power.
One day, he was offered a job as a boat designer at AB Reversator, a manufacturer of combustion engines for ships. "Cege" was entrusted with the design of suitable boats for a reversible explosion engine. This innovative single-cylinder engine, with forward and reverse gear, was installed in Pettersson's first own ship, an open motorboat called "Vikingen", in 1904. With its 2.5 hp, the "Vikingen" reached an impressive 7.4 knots. That was enough for him to return to Sweden that same year from a motorboat race in Kiel as the winner, complete with a prize of honour. A first real milestone in his career as a yacht designer.
One of the factors that contributed to C. G. Pettersson's greatness was the variety of his designs. He drew small dinghies, cargo ships, sailing canoes, sailing ships and pleasure boats in pencil and ink. Between 1910 and 1920, he produced an average of 40 designs per year on his drawing board. No mission, no client was unimportant to him.
Legendary Scandinavian round trip with the "Viking X"
Pettersson's final breakthrough came with his tenth own ship, the "Viking X". He benefited from the fact that he was not only a man of theory and a drawing board tinkerer - but also a passionate long-distance traveller. On his excursions, he gathered the necessary practical knowledge, which he incorporated into his designs. In 1925, Pettersson designed his most famous boat to date, the "Viking X", for what was probably his most highly regarded round trip in Scandinavia. The purpose of the trip was a long-distance test with the new A2 engine from Penta. The voyage was also to be used for advertising purposes.
Pettersson's crew consisted of director Carl Barck Lind, cameraman Carl Halling, a writer named Ragnar Holmstrom and the monkey Jocke as an on-board factotum. The gentlemen set sail on 20 June 1925. The journey proved to be extremely arduous. The entries in the logbook were as exciting as they were amusing. After three and a half wet months, the "Viking X" arrived back in Stockholm on schedule. The crew and equipment were exhausted but unharmed, monkey Jocke was in good health. Pettersson summarised: "There were no serious mishaps. The boat was reliable, the engine never stumbled and the crew was complete. You can't ask for more than that!"
The "Viking X" has been in the possession of the National Maritime Museum in Stockholm since 2008, as an exhibit with several other original sketches by Pettersson. Unfortunately, the film of this voyage is now considered lost.
However, many of his boats still exist. Thanks to the solid construction of Pettersson's designs, countless owners of his remarkable boats still enjoy them today.
One of them is Arne Lorenzen: With the "Eol", he has bought a particularly elegant Pettersson vessel. At 13.15 metres, the yacht almost looks like a cruise ship on the Havel - an elegant motor yacht, beyond any doubts that sailors may secretly harbour. "I'm actually a sailor too, originally from Flensburg. But here ...": too little wind, too many bridges and canals. The "Eol" was made for the Havel and Spree. The only thing missing is an explanation of what the ship's name "Eol" actually stands for. Perhaps it is a proper name, Lorenzens surmises. During his research, he came across the meaning "End of Life". But it doesn't look like that at all - more like eternity.
Technical data saloon boat "EOL", C. G. Pettersson, 1921
- Shipyard: Pabst-Werft, Berlin-Köpenick
- Length: 13.15 m
- Width: 2.55 m
- Draught: 1.10 m
- Displacement: 4.5 tonnes
- Engine: Volvo TAMD 41
- Cylinder: 6
- PS: 200
- Cruising: 12 knots
- Maximum speed: 22 knots
