Lawrence Karl Davidson (12 December 1926 – 4 October 2021) was a New Zealand sailing yacht designer. He is most notable for his

International America's Cup Class The International Americas Cup Class is a class of racing yacht that was developed for the America's Cup between 1992 and 2007. These yachts, while not identical, were all designed to the same formula to offer designers the freedom to experiment ...

sailboats which successfully challenged and defended the

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

sailing trophy. In the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

, Davidson was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ...

, for services to yacht designing. He was inducted into the

America's Cup Hall of Fame The America's Cup Hall of Fame, located at the Herreshoff Marine Museum of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, honors individuals for outstanding achievement in the America's Cup sailing competition. Candidates eligible for consideration include skippers ...

in 2007.

Early career

Davidson was born on 12 December 1926. After leaving school he qualified as an accountant and worked in that profession until in 1969 he joined Morley Sutherland's boat building company at

Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...

. In 1970 Tony Bouzaid commissioned the Blitzkrieg a half-ton yacht designed by Davidson. Davidson captained it to win the inaugural New Zealand Half Ton Championship. Encouraged by this success Davidson bought an

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computer and with software sourced from

Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new and existing vessels for pleasure, commercial, and milit ...

began using the computer to design yachts. He was subsequently the first New Zealand yacht designer to hold the IOR rule on computer. in 1976 Davidson designed ''Fun'', a trailerable Quarter Ton yacht.

IOR success

In 1976 Davidson designed ''Waverider'' for Tony Bouzaid, which won the 1978 Half Ton Cup held at Poole, England. In reaction to the success of the light displacement yachts designed by Davidson,

Bruce Farr Bruce Kenneth Farr (born 1949 in Auckland) is a New Zealand designer of racing and cruising yachts. Farrdesigned boats have won, challenged for, or placed highly in the Whitbread Round the World Race, America's Cup, and Sydney to Hobart Yacht R ...

and Paul Whiting, the IOR brought in new rules which required extensive surgery of ''Waverider'' to bring her into class for the 1979 Half Ton Cup series, which ''Waverider'' won, becoming the first yacht to ever win the Half Ton Cup twice. After the success of ''Waverider'', John MacLaurin commissioned ''Pendragon'' a Three-Quarter-tonner development of and big sister to ''Waverider''. Built lightly in wood by Ocean Racing Yachts in Auckland, ''Pendragon'' won the Three-Quarter Ton cup held in 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the following year it won the

One Ton Cup The One Ton Cup is a trophy presented to the winner of a sailing competition created in 1899 in sports, 1899 by the Cercle de la voile de Paris (CVP). Synopsis The One Ton Cup regattas were at the beginning of races between one-tonner sailing ...

held at Newport, Rhode Island, a feat which was not achieved by any other yacht in level rating competition. Among his other designs have been the M20 fibreglass trailer yacht (1973), the Davidson 28, the Davidson 31 (1974), the Dash 34 (1981), the Davidson 35 (1981), the Davidson 40, the Cavalier 37, the Cavalier 45 production yachts. The only Davidson yacht in production is the Davidson 29, designed in 1990. Two boats racing and cruising are home ported in Seattle Washington, and Vancouver B.C.. Custom production at Center of Effort, sailboat shop, Port Townsend, Washington.Craig Ryan Montague. face book. Davidson designed ''Outward Bound'' for Digby Taylor which competed in the 1981-82

Whitbread Round the World race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Ra ...

, and won the small boat honours.

Death

Davidson died in Auckland, aged 94, on 4 October 2021.

America's Cup

* 1995,

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

– Designed ''

NZL 32 ''NZL 32'', or ''Black Magic'', is an International Americas Cup Class yacht which won the 1995 America's Cup by defeating the American defender ''Young America'' in a 5–0 victory off San Diego, California. Design ''NZL 32'' was, in many wa ...

'' which won the

in five straight races * 2000, Auckland – Chief designer for Team New Zealand, and again won in five straight races (against challenger

Luna Rossa Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, originally named Prada Challenge, then Luna Rossa Challenge, is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate first created to compete for the 2000 America's Cup. It won the Louis Vuitton Cup on its first attempt in 2000, but t ...

) * 2003, Auckland – Designer for OneWorld Challenge who made it as far as the semi-final repechage.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Laurie 1926 births 2021 deaths New Zealand yacht designers America's Cup yacht designers Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit People from Dargaville