Pelle Helmer Petterson (born 31 July 1932) is a Swedish

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

and yacht designer. Petterson has won two Olympic medals, four world championship titles, challenged for 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 ...

and designed several sailboats, including

Maxi 77 Maxi 77 is a sailboat class designed by Pelle Petterson and built in about 3,750 copies. History The Maxi 77 designed by Pelle Petterson Pelle Helmer Petterson (born 31 July 1932) is a Swedish sailor and yacht designer. Petterson has won two ...

Biography

Early life

Pelle Petterson was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 31 July 1932 to

Helmer Petterson Helmer is a surname and a given name of Germanic origin. Helmer may also refer to: Places * Helmer, Idaho, United States * Helmer, Indiana, United States *Helmer, Michigan, United States * Mount Helmer, on the border of Alberta and British Col ...

and Norwegian-born Borgny Petterson (born Holm). His father was also a designer who developed wood gas aggregates and

Volvo PV444 The Volvo PV is a series of two-door, four-passenger car models — the PV444 and the PV544 — made by Volvo from 1947 to 1965. During World War II's early stages, Volvo decided that a new, smaller car that could deliver good fuel economy would ...

, strongly influencing his son to go in his footsteps. In his youth, Petterson built gravity racers and sailed in the Stjärnbåt class.

Design career

Petterson studied at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

in New York from 1955 to 1957. He designed the 12 mR yacht ''

Sverige Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

'', 17 6 mR yachts, and worked with Maxi,

Nimbus Nimbus, from the Latin for "dark cloud", is an outdated term for the type of cloud now classified as the nimbostratus cloud. Nimbus also may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Halo (religious iconography), also known as ''Nimbus'', a ring of ligh ...

and Monark Crescent. The Maxi series comprise about 30 designs, among them the

. He has also designed the sailboats Monark 606 and C 55. In 2003, he designed the Swedish Match 40 for

match racing A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head. In sailing, sailboat racing it is differentiated from a fleet racing, fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team rac ...

events. He also designed

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

's successful sports car, the P1800, while he was a student of

Pietro Frua Pietro Frua (2 May 1913 - 28 June 1983) was one of the leading Italian coachbuilders and car designers during the 1950s and 1960s. Early years Frua was born in Turin, the centre of coachbuilding in northern Italy. He was the fourth son of Angela, ...

Sailing career

Competing in the Star class, Petterson won a bronze in 1964 together with

Holger Sundström Holger Bertil Sundström (17 April 1925 – 9 April 2023) was a Swedish Olympic sailor. Together with Pelle Pettersson he won a bronze medal in the Star class at the 1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 196 ...

. He held the world title in this event in 1969, when he won the

1969 Star World Championship The 1969 Star World Championship was held in San Diego, United States in 1969, organised by San Diego Yacht Club San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) is a private yacht club in San Diego, California. Founded in 1886, it is one of the oldest in the Unite ...

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 ...

together with Ulf Schröder. In 1972, Petterson was back at the Olympics, again competing in the Star class, this time winning a silver medal. Petterson, along with

Stellan Westerdahl Stellan Westerdahl (10 November 1935 – 27 August 2018) was a Swedish sailor. He won a silver medal in the '' star class'' at the 1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () an ...

, led the regatta after five races, but struggles in the sixth race made David Forbes of Australia winning the gold. With money from the

design, and sponsored by SCA,

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (; lit. "Scandinavian Private Bank"), abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Nor ...

and Volvo, Petterson challenged for the

two times. With the yacht ''

'', Pettersons team competed in the 1977 Herbert Pell Cup and 1980 Herbert Pell Cup, advancing to the final in the 1977 edition. In Sweden, Pettersson represented Kattegatflottiljen in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Personal life

Pelle Petterson married Irene and has three children. One of them, Cecilia, designs a sailing clothing and sports wear bearing the name Petterson, under the brand name ''Pelle P.''. His other daughter, Ulrika "Icka", lives in the U.S. and is married to

Paul Cayard Paul Pierre Cayard (born May 19, 1959) is an American yachtsman and professional sailor. He has competed at multiple world championship level sailing events, including the America's Cup, the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race ...

, an American yachtsman and professional sailor. Since 1975, Pelle Petterson and Irene are residing in Kullavik.

Awards

Petterson was the first person to be inducted into the Swedish Sailing Hall of Fame. On 14 May 2004 he received the Swedish Business Award for Outstanding Achievements of the first grade from the West Swedish Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Among previous recipients are

Arvid Carlsson Arvid Carlsson (25 January 1923 – 29 June 2018) was a Swedish neuropharmacologist who is best known for his work with the neurotransmitter dopamine and its effects in Parkinson's disease. For his work on dopamine, Carlsson was awarded the Nob ...

Nobel laureate,

Ingvar Kamprad Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire who founded IKEA in 1943 and grew into a multinational retail company that became the world's largest furniture seller in 2008. He moved to Switzerland w ...

founder of Ikea and

Pehr G. Gyllenhammar Pehr Gustaf Gyllenhammar (28 April 1935 – 21 November 2024) was a Swedish businessman. He is mainly known for his 24 years as CEO and chairman of Volvo between 1970 and 1994. In the early 1980s he took the initiative for the European Round Ta ...

former CEO of Volvo. On 19 November 2004 he received the KTH's Stora Pris from the

Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university. Since 2018, KTH consist ...

in Stockholm. On 8 June 2010 Petterson received from

Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. Having reigned since 1973, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history. Carl Gustaf was born during the reign of his paternal great-grandfather, K ...

the King's Medal (12th size bright-blue ribbon) for outstanding contributions as a yachtsman and boat designer.

Achievements

References

External links

pellepetterson.se
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petterson, Pelle 1932 births Living people Swedish male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Sweden Sailors at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Star Sailors at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Dragon Sailors at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Flying Dutchman Sailors at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Star Olympic silver medalists for Sweden Olympic bronze medalists for Sweden Swedish automobile designers America's Cup yacht designers Swedish yacht designers Olympic medalists in sailing Star class world champions 6 Metre class sailors Volvo Ocean Race sailors Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics 1980 America's Cup sailors 1977 America's Cup sailors World champions in sailing for Sweden Swedish people of Norwegian descent Sailors (sport) from Stockholm 20th-century Swedish sportsmen