Johan Anker

Born as the son of a businessman, Johan Anker sailed from childhood but was also an avid skier and ice skater. He built his first regatta boat at the age of 17 and completed training at the Royal Technical University of Charlottenburg (now part of Berlin) in Germany as a naval architect. He then joined his father’s company pulp factory in Halden.

In 1905, Anker bought into the Christian Jensen Boat Building Company at the Oslofjord, which changed its name to Anker & Jensen Boat Building Company. His partner Christian Jensen was responsible for the boat building, while Anker took over the design and construction. Although he became the only shareholder in 1915, he kept the company’s name Anker & Jensen.

In 1908, Anker took part in his first Olympics in the 8 metres class. Although his Fram did not come in worse than third in any of the three races they missed a medal, placing fourth. At the 1909 Kiel Week, he won the 12mR class with his self-constructed Yacht Brand IV. Two years later he took first place in the same class in the Coronation Regatta on the Solent between England’s south coast and the Isle of Wight. In 1912, he confirmed his success, winning gold at the 1912 Olympic Games with the self-designed Magda IX. Sixteen years later he returned to the Olympics at the age of 57 winning another gold on the Zuiderzee in the 6 metres class with the Norna together with his son Erik and the Norwegian Crown Prince an later King Olav.

Johan Anker’s designs are considered beautiful ships and he was awarded the honorary title of “Master of Lines” by international yacht journalists. His most famous design was the 3-man keelboat Dragon from 1929. With his design he won a competition by Göteborgs Kungliga Segelsällskap for a new one-design class. The Dragon was an Olympic boat class from 1948 to 1972 and remained popular until today. In addition to sailing yachts, he also designed Roald Amundsen’s polar ship Maud.

Anker was chairman of the KNS in the periods 1916–19 and 1921–25 and in 1915 also became the first chairman of the Scandinavian Sailing Federation. He was also instrumental in developing the Scandinavian S-measuring rule from 1917 which was the basis for the new, international R-measurement rule, adopted in 1919.

Johan Anker was involved in various business activities including the founding of Store Norske Spitsbergen Coal Company. He became the company’s chairman in 1928 and chairman of the board of the Norwegian Wine Monopoly in 1930. He also supported Norwegian artist and art projects.

Anker was married twice, the first time to Julie Frederikke Jacobsen, the mother of Olympian Erik and three other children, and the second time to the Norwegian novelist and playwright Nicoline Magdalene “Nini” Roll Anker. Through a mutual interest in sailing he was close to the Norwegian royal family. In 1940, shortly before his death, the German friendly Anker tried in vain, to persuade King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav to stay in Norway instead of accompanying the government to Great Britain.