Einar Ohlson
1918 – 2004
The Ohlson Brothers, Einar and Carl-Eric were self-taught sailors from Hälleviksstrand, Orust.
Einar Ohlson was born in Hälleviksstrand, Orust. Excellence in yacht design and highly skilled business man. Co-designer of GKSS skiff, Koster boats such as K6, GKSS Spigg and several different one-off boats, spanning from successfully designed racing boats to serial production family boats .
Several of their designs have been marked ancient cultural value (K-märkt).
The Passion
From early childhood Einar was an apprentice under the boat designer and builder, uncle Hjalmar Johansson boat yard at Kungsviken and later at Långedrag, Göteborg.
Einar settled in Gothenburg in 1934. He was educated as a naval architect, first became an engineer at Götaverken and later at the State’s Ship Trial Institute.
Carl-Erik Ohlson
1920 – 2015
Carl-Eric Ohlson was born in Hälleviksstrand, Orust, Sweden.
Yacht designer, boat builder, excellence in craftmanship and sail racer. Bronze medalist in 5.5 Metre Class at the Olympic Games in Helsinki 1952.
Designer of the NC cruiser and co-designer of GKSS skiff, Koster boats such as K6 and GKSS Spigg and 5.5m boats.
Company
Einar and Carl-Eric Ohlson formed the design office, Ingenjörsfirman Bröderna Ohlson, in 1951.
When Carl-Eric Ohlson resigned in 1957 the company was transformed into a joint-stock company with Einar Ohlson and his wife, Wallis, as the two main shareholders.
The design office operated from 1951 to September 1999.
Wallis, married Einar Ohlson in 1954 and was an inside sales secretary, highly skilled in English, French and German and worked also as the accountant until the company closed down in 1999.
Einar and Wallis Ohlson were a devoted hard working couple. During five decades they had both design and sales employees; Barry Walker, sales representative, Sverker Ullerstam, design assistant, Lars Myrén sales representative (1961 – 1975) and Christer Båth, design assistant.
54 different boat models have been identified, designed by the Ohlson Brothers, as co-designers or individually.
The company never owned or intended to own production facilities. From very early on the designe office understood the opportunity of separating the design and production process of boat building.
They went further and encouraged their designs to be built by as many yards possible and allocating high-quality plus cost effective building of hulls to those known to be experts in the trade in Europe and in Sweden and finishing the hulls by well known local expert boat-builders in Sweden.
68 different yards/locations in eleven countries have been identified where the Ohlson designed boats have been built.
External recognition
Orust Municipality recently published a proposal to name a place in Hällevikstrand ‘Bröderna Ohlsons Plats’ to commemorate the life and achievements of Einar and Carl-Eric Ohlson