Knud Olsen (1919 in

Præstø Præstø () is a town with a population of 3,857 (1 January 2022) in Vordingborg Municipality in Region Sjælland on the east coast of the island of Zealand (''Sjælland''). The islands of '' Maderne'', ''Storeholm'', and ''Lilleholm'' are part ...

– 31 August 2010 in

Bandholm Bandholm is a small port town and parish on the coast of northern Lolland, Region Zealand, Denmark. On 1 January 2022 it had a population of 476, and is located to the northwest of Knuthenborg Safari Park and Maribo. From Bandholm there is ferry s ...

) was a Danish builder and designer of boats, who designed one of the most popular sailing dinghies in use over the past 50 years, the OK Dinghy, which became an

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

International Class in 1974. Olsen went on to design sailboats built in the town of Bandholm under that name. The Bandholm boats were built between 20 and 35 feet long starting in 1961 and until the builders went under in the late 80s.

Biography

Olsen was born in 1919 in Præstø, Denmark. In 1939, he and his brother, Bjørn, formed a boatbuilding business and designed and built several boats until a shortage of boatbuilding material caused by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

ended the business. In the early 1950s, he joined the Danish company, A. P. Botved, who were producing speedboats, and worked there until he started his own business in

in 1961. He designed and built a number of boats including the Bandholm 26, the Bianca 27 and the Great Dane 28, which were the first Danish boats to be built using fibreglass hulls, the Bandholm 20, Bandholm 30, the Mariboat and the Bandholm 24. In 1956, Danish architect, Axel Damgaard Olsen, asked Olsen to create a design for a light, fast, single-handed sailing dinghy that could be built and sailed by amateurs. The outcome was the OK dinghy, which went on to be a classic design, became an ISAF International Class in 1974 and is still used in international competition. The 50th anniversary of the design of the OK dinghy was marked by the largest ever OK Dinghy World Championships held at

Łeba Łeba (pronounced: , Kashubian, Pomeranian and German: ''Leba'') is a seaside town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of northern Poland. It is located in the Pomerelia sub-region, near Łebsko Lake and the mouth of the river Łeba on the coast of ...

on the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

coast in July 2007. Knud Olsen died aged 90 on 31 August 2010 in his hometown Bandholm.

References

Sources

Okdia: Knud OlsenOK Dinghy World Championships, Leba, PolandSailworld.com: Largest ever OK Dinghy World Championships

Biography

References

Sources

See also