Charles Ernest Nicholson OBE RDI (12 May 1868 – 26 February 1954) was a British yacht designer.

[1] In the early 1900s Nicholson developed a new powered craft which would enable the owners to come from their "big-boats" before and after the competitions.

In 1912, Nicholson introduced the 15mR design Istria with a Marconi rig, the first yacht in the world with a lightweight, laminated wood construction.

This led to further developments and growing expertise in the use of lightweight materials which saw its fruition in the use of plywood in deck construction.

[2] This ultimately led to arguably Nicholson's most beautiful sailing creation, the 1927 commissioned Vira (later Creole) was built on behalf of Alexander Smith Cochran.