Bertil Bothén

Bertil Bothén was a Swedish civil engineer and boat designer. He graduated from Chalmers Tekniska Högskola in 1917. After travelling through various European countries he worked for a railway and electrical companies. In 1920 he founded his own electrical company Bothén & Linderholm in Göteborg and was later increasingly in involved in boat designing. With his wife Dagmar Eugenia (née Carlsson) he had one daughter.

Bothén designed archipelago cruisers and international boats, e.g. the 6 metres yacht “Ian II”, and the training ships Kaparen and Kryssaren. He was also the initiator of the 5.5 m Nordic cruiser rule and drafted the measurement regulation for the new boat class. In Sweden, he designed most of the Nordic cruisers. As a skipper he won approximately 200 prizes, nationally as well as internationally. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm he was a member of the crew of the Marga, placing fourth and last in both races of the 10-metre class. Bertil Bothén was the secretary of Göteborgs Kungliga Segel Sällskap (GKSS) from 1927-28 and was the founder and first secretary of the Nordic Cruiser Club. He was also an avid skier.