George Nicholson was educated at Cheltenham College in England.
After engineering training at Thornycroft, he did a brief stretch at the Camper
&
Nicholsons drawing office in Southampton. He then was sent to Cannes
to persuade owners of the larger yachts, who had left the United Kingdom for tax
reasons, to return, at least for their yacht refits. When this didn’t work, it
became obvious to Nicholson that, when compared to northern waters, the Med was
going to be the future center of large yachting. He formed Camper &
Nicholsons International (CNI) in Cannes in 1961, but purely as an employee and
10 percent subsidiary of C&N. He was not a shareholder in either.
In 1978, Nicholson left C&N (after giving one year’s
notice). He formed Solidmark, where he was self-employed. The company did well,
first in new construction, and then when it added brokerage and later charter
when his children were old enough to work in the business. This gave him enough
money to buy back CNI in 1992 when he was approached by the then-shareholders.
The rest is modern yachting history.
Hometown: Hamble, on the south coast of
England
Age: 71
Profession: Chairman of Camper &
Nicholsons International, a full-service yacht brokerage company
First boat: 12-foot National
dinghy
Current yacht: International Dragon
Pistou—GBR 672
Most memorable boating moments: Winning the
Burton trophy, 1958; being selected for the 5.5-meter class for the 1960 Olympic
Games; landing on Cape Horn; refueling ECO in the mid-Atlantic when crossing and using
gas turbines all the way
Greatest professional achievement: Starting
CNI in 1961 and beating out the locally established competition by
1975
If you had another pass at a career, what would it be? Connected in some way to art
Closest boating buddy: Two, but both now
deceased; Emilio Azcárraga and Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
Weekday wake-up time: 7:30
a.m.
Hobbies: Classic cars and collecting marine
antiques
Last book read: "Charlie Wilson’s War" (by
George Crile)
Favorite dance music: Classic jazz and
1950s/’60s swing
Proudest moment: Difficult question, but I
think it was probably achieving some 36 knots with ECO on sea trials in the
Baltic. It had been a huge responsibility advising my friend Emilio Azcárraga to
go ahead and build such a radical yacht, where so many things had never been
done before. When she actually did her stuff, it was a very emotional moment
telephoning Mexico to let Emilio know that we (with Martin Francis and Blohm
& Voss) had pulled it off.
First job: Engineering apprentice at John I.
Thornycroft (now Vospers)
Best job: I have not had many jobs. It was
very satisfying being successful with Solidmark, which enabled me to buy back
CNI in 1992.
Favorite movie: Just about all the great
musicals
Preferred wheels: 1931 vintage four-liter
Bentley with a crash gearbox
Preferred wings: Swiss and
NetJets
Do you ever take the controls? I owned a Piper
Super Cub for a number of years. I sold it in 1973. Have not flown since, except
for a little gliding.
Favorite timepiece: Blancpain
Flyback
Favorite clothing designer: Loro Piana. High
quality, good range and not flashy.
Favorite cruising grounds: Greek Islands.
Distances are perfect, and one can select the weather conditions desired by
choosing different areas. Still largely unspoiled.
Favorite sports: Sailing small boats and
competitive classic car rallies
What positions do you prefer? Skipper and
driver
Favorite port: Saint-Tropez. It still has an
unspoiled town, is animated and has excellent sailing.
Latest impulse purchase: I am about to add to
my collection of very early marine chronometers. The engineering in these pieces
is fantastic when one considers the development period was from 1760 to 1830.
Just about every horological trick and invention used in today’s luxury
watches was invented during this period, before electricity, electric tools
and electric light.
 Waterfront: Lucky Sevens
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