I recently wrote about how the International Superyacht Society bestowed a Lifetime Achievement award on Don Patton. I’ve been remiss in failing to mention that at the same gala, George Nicholson of Camper & Nicholsons (CNI) was honored with the annual Leadership Award.
To say that “Mr. Nicholson,” as many of his employees call him, was and still is a leader in the megayacht business is an understatement if there ever was one. He earned a degree in marine engineering and ended up pioneering new directions in the yacht business, all the while still taking time to personally enjoy boats of various kinds. He created CNI in 1961, providing, among other things, sales and after-sales service to yachtsmen in the South of France while also persuading them to take their yachts to the family yard, Nicholsons, back in England for refit work. In the decades that followed, Nicholson added charter and new-construction consultation to the CNI repertoire. Among the many famous yachts he had a hand in seeing come to life was Nabila (now Kingdom 5KR); as the story goes, Nicholson and the late designer Jon Bannenberg, also a good friend, had a special office in the back of a bar in Viareggio, Italy, where they planned the yacht.
Rather than retell his amazing accomplishments in my words and paraphrase his gracious acceptance, I’ll let his words speak for themselves:
“I think I have been one of the luckiest and happiest people in this business. I have covered both sail and powerboats and have raced extensively under sail too. Some of the high points in my professional life have to be:
sailing for Great Britain in the 1960 Olympic Games
selling Prince Rainier of Monaco’s almost new yacht Albecaro to Sheik Shakbut, Ruler of Abu Dhabi, in 1964–the first used yacht to top 1 million dollars.
crossing the Atlantic in Eco using the gas turbine all the way and refueling in mid-Atlantic from our own tanker, the Eco Supporter, and averaging some 25 knots for the crossing
sailing in Adix from Sydney to Hobart and then from Hobart to Auckland, New Zealand; and then the following year cruising all of Southern Chile, landing on Cape Horn Island and signing the book, followed by 10 days in the ice in the Antarctic
some 20 years of cruising with my great friend, the late Emilio Azcarraga, on a variety of motor yachts, probably covering some 300,000 miles and very many different places.
Who could ask for more?”
Who could indeed.
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