Colin Archer (22 July 1832 – 8 February 1921) was a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder known for his seaworthy pilot and rescue boats and the larger sailing and polar ships.

Before his career in naval architecture, he spent time as a farmer and administrator in Queensland, Australia with several of his brothers,[3] including David who first arrived in Sydney in 1834.

[6] Before he started building sailboats, he studied the work of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman and especially his displacement curve.

This 47-foot boat[7] proved so seaworthy that 33 were built, giving Archer and his shipyard a reputation for durable and safe ships.

In a career that lasted until he ended his business at the age of 78, Archer built about 200 boats, 120 with ballast keels.

He published a 29-page design lecture that included Fredrik Henrik af Chapman's and John Scott Russell's theories.

Based on his belief in 1873 that shipbuilding is more lucrative than building boats, in 1874, Archer and investors founded the shipyard "Laurvig Strandværft" in Rekkevik in the Larvik fjord.

During late autumn of 1915 it developed a serious leak while on a voyage in the North Sea from Granton to Porsgrunn with coal, and was abandoned.

The plans for Leon were reproduced by Harold A. Underhill in 1958 in his book Plank-On-Frame Models and Scale Masting and Rigging, vol.

[8] In 1886 the 3-masted bark Pollux seal and whaling ship was built to Colin Archer's design in Arendal.

In 1899 Amedo bought the former whaling vessel Jason, renamed it Stella Polare and took it to Colin Archer's shipyard.

Amedo set off in June 1899 and Stella Polare had a difficult time but survived thanks to Archer's work.

Influenced by Scott Russell's theories, it had the midship section 58% from the forward perpendicular as opposed to the traditional position of 44%.

Archer also made his boats deeper with more ballast, built strongly with oak and they soon became known for seaworthiness and speed.

Ceiling, 45 mm planking fitted inside the frames, were made watertight and thus the boat would float and be maneuverable in case of a leak or damage.

To minimize pitching to give the boats an easier motion and keep the deck dry, the ballast was concentrated midships, and anchor windlass and chain placed aft of the mast.

The yachts have their main boom extending the stern for several feet that with a relatively tall mast enhanced performance.

On almost all boats, Archer spaced grown pine frames 2 feet c-c with a thin steam-bent oak rib between.

He started with Chapman's displacement parabola curve, but with Scott Russell's positioning of the midship section well aft of amidships and thus with sharp bow waterlines.

The customer was the English sailor Haig that had already sailed in north Norway and wanted to have a more seaworthy boat to go to Spitsbergen.

The boat was named SHANGHAI and sailed to Denmark in 1923/24 by the Danish owners and sold to an American judge F. DeWitt Wells to undertake a voyage similar to the Vikings to America.

Atkin designed a 32 feet yacht with lines basically a scaled-down version of Colin Archer’s Mk.

Although built as yacht, the lines were basically of a fishing boat design with a great beam (by 14,5 feet – 36%) and without a ballast keel.

[15] Nutting wanted to sail the northerly route to America, and in the boat LEIV ERIKSSON, left Norway at same time as SHANGHAI.

The Eric went on to become very influential in ocean sailing, with boats such as Vito Dumas's Lehg II and Robin Knox-Johnston's Suhaili making notable circumnavigations.

Another Colin Archer type boat to become very famous in the 1968 Golden Globe Race, was the French sailor and author Bernard Moitessier in his custom-built 39-foot steel ketch Joshua.

She had a tall rig and was catching up on Suhaili, but instead of passing the finishing line, Moitessier continued around the world to Tahiti, thus sailing 1.5 times around the globe, non-stop, single-handed.

During the 1970s, Atkin's ERIC design was adapted to glass-reinforced plastic by William Crealock, and became the Westsail 32 and has inspired many imitations, so that the "Archer double-ender" style of boat continues to be popular to the present day.

[17][18] The Argentinian naval architect Manuel M. Campos based his designs on Archer/Atkin and built Vito Dumas's Lehg II in 1934 in Argentina.

The 'Venus' yachts built by Paul Erling Johnson in the 60's and 70's are also heavily influenced by Colin Archer's designs.