page_title: Colin Archer
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Colin Archer / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Asgard, Near Dublin Late 60's
context_page_description: Colin Archer was a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder known for his seaworthy pilot and rescue boats and the larger sailing and polar ships. His most famous ship is the Fram, used on both in Fridtjof Nansen's and Roald Amundsen's polar expeditions.
context_section_description: Colin Archer sold several boats to Sweden in the early 1880s and Swedish designers soon adapted the Archer type for pilot-boats and yachts. Norwegian pilot- and fishing boat builders converted to the Archer type after the rescue boat had shown its seaworthiness in 1894.
  Archer also had customers in Denmark, Germany, Holland and England. In 1904, he built a boat for the writer Robert Erskine Childers named the Asgard.
  Outside Scandinavia, the rescue boat lines have been the most popular design. The Archer-type outside of Norway has more beam and smaller rig than Archer's actual yachts.
  In 1908 the 47 feet OEGER was designed by Archer but built in Porsgrunn. The customer was the English sailor Haig that had already sailed in north Norway and wanted to have a more seaworthy boat to go to Spitsbergen. The lines were narrower version (32% beam) of the Mk. III rescue boat. The rig, however, was cutter with large sail area. The boat was sold to Ralph Stock in 1919 who undertook a cruise around the world with her. In 1921 the popular book The Cruise of the Dream Ship based on Stock's voyage was published.
  In the early 1920s, a 47 feet yacht was built in China. The lines were based on Colin Archer’s 1908 Mk. III rescue boat plans. The boat was named SHANGHAI and sailed to Denmark in 1923/24 by the Danish owners and sold to an American judge F. DeWitt Wells to undertake a voyage similar to the Vikings to America. In June 1923, plans for SHANGHAI were published in the American magazine MotorBoat.
  In 1924 William Atkin was contacted by W.W. Nutting, editor of the American magazine MotorBoat and earlier Atkin customer. He wanted a yacht based on Colin Archer’s rescue boats. Atkin designed a 32 feet yacht with lines basically a scaled-down version of Colin Archer’s Mk. III rescue boat, slightly sharper bow lines and with a cutter rig.  The design was called ERIC and was published in the Motorboat. Nutting, however, heard that boats were cheaper in Norway and cancelled the order. In Norway he bought a 40 feet second-hand double ender. Although built as yacht, the lines were basically of a fishing boat design with a great beam (by 14,5 feet – 36%) and without a ballast keel. It had high bulwarks and the large cockpit that was not self-draining to give access to the engine beneath. Nutting wanted to sail the northerly route to America, and in the boat LEIV ERIKSSON, left Norway at same time as SHANGHAI. Unfortunately, Nutting and his crew were lost without a trace off Greenland in September. SHANGHAI also had problems as their sails parted, they blew ashore on an island on Nova Scotia, but one crew managed to swim ashore in the breakers and pull the others ashore with lines. He thereafter managed to swim to the mainland so a boat could rescue the others.
  William Atkins plans for ERIC, published in MotorBoat arose immediate interest. Plans were modified with a new interior, ketch rig and three boats were built and launched in 1925. Atkin received more orders and more Archer-type yachts were designed. The INGRID in 1934 is 37.5 feet and a stretched version (beam 30%) with well-undercut forefoot and hollow waterlines. The lines resemble Archer’s yachts except Archer had greatest beam further aft. Archer, on his later yachts, used fuller lines, especially aft.
  The Eric went on to become very influential in ocean sailing, with boats such as Vito Dumas's Lehg II and Robin Knox-Johnston's Suhaili making notable circumnavigations. The latter was the first boat to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world in 1968 Golden Globe Race. Suhaili was very under canvassed and definitely the slowest boat in the race, but as the only one of nine boats to complete the race, she took both first prizes; the first and fastest boat!
  Another Colin Archer type boat to become very famous in the 1968 Golden Globe Race, was the French sailor and author Bernard Moitessier in his custom-built 39-foot steel ketch Joshua. She had a tall rig and was catching up on Suhaili, but instead of passing the finishing line, Moitessier continued around the world to Tahiti, 
caption: Asgard, Archer's only 2-masted yacht. Half of Archer's 50 yachts had counter sterns similar to Asgard's.
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