Christian Jensen must have started building boats in his own right by the end of the 1880s, when he was just about 20. Much later, in his early sixties, he wrote out a couple of pages of reminiscences for the 1933 50th jubilee book of the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club (mentioned again below). He describes the boat building activities at Vollen in the 1880s and 1890s, and mentions that Gudmundsen, where he was first employed as an apprentice, actually learnt his skills from Jensen’s grandfather.

As regards design, he says there was a lot of experimentation going on: should the yachts be sturdy like Colin Archer pilot vessels, should they be double-enders (“spissgattere”) to navigate the wind-blown Norwegian coastline and beyond, or if they had a counter stern ("hekk båter") should they have a deep displacement or skim over the water like shallow dishes? There were one or two budding amateur gentlemen designers in this yachting milieu who tried out their ideas with some success. Then there was Sinding, the director of the Kristiania technical school. Influences from abroad were also gradually making an impact: Herreshoff's GLORIANA design from the USA, Watson's BRITANNIA from 1893, Fife in Scotland and Oertz in Germany, not to mention the Swedes such as Liljegren and Alfred Bentzon from Denmark.

To return to the 1880s, Sinding designs were all the rage, and Gudmundsen of Vollen, Christian Jensen's mentor, built a number of these yachts. The first year in which Jensen is mentioned as a yacht designer is 1896. Halfdan Hansen, the author/editor of the KNS Jubilee Book of 1933, explains that in the summer of 1896 the Norwegian competitors down in Gothenburg and Marstrand were slightly humiliated. The same story was repeated at Øresund, near Copenhagen, and at Moss, when the Swedes paid a return visit to the Kristianiafjord later in the summer.

The new board of the Kristiania Yacht Club (one of the two clubs which eventually amalgamated into KNS at the end of 1904) announced a competition for Norwegian designers, hoping that the Norwegian boats might then catch up with Sweden and Denmark. The idea was to produce a "modern" yacht of ca. 25 tons according to the girth-sail area rule. Christian Jensen submitted his design and got an honourable mention. Eight designers contributed, and the winner was H.J. Svenningsen.

In 1899 Jensen took over Gudmundsen's yard at Vollen when the latter retired from building new boats. Straightaway Jensen gained an important customer: Alfred W.G. Larsen. Larsen still did not dare to use Norwegian yacht designers for his boat orders, swearing by Fife. But he was happy to let Jensen build his yachts.

ASTRID 2 (1899) was a 22 tonner, and a huge yacht. MAGDA 3, MAGDA 4, and MAGDA 5 were built by Jensen in 1903, 1904, and 1905 respectively.

Jensen also built yachts for other customers in the years round the turn of the century, e.g. DANSEUSE and TORNADO (the latter for Fernando Ringvold - the contract is reproduced in CLASSIC LINES No. 11, in the article about the Ringvold yachting brothers). As a designer, Jensen first tried his hand in the 6 sailing lengths class with ALFHILD and AAGOT. Photos of all these yachts can be found in the KNS Jubilee Book. They are also part of the Abel collection (regatta photos) at the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Oslo.

Jensen's major breakthrough as a designer and yachtbuilder of significance came in 1903. In that year the Kristiania Yacht Club board, together with the Gothenburg Royal Yacht Club and the Danish Royal Yacht Club, set up the statutes for the Kattegat Trophy. Alfred Larsen was the initiator, and he obviously arranged for Christian Jensen to design and build the Norwegian boat for the competition, MAGDA 3. In spite of Larsen’s preference for Fife designs at this time, Jensen was able to construct MAGDA 3 because the statutes stated that each competing boat had to have its own national designer. There were also other rules, such as amateur status of the helmsman, etc.

From triumph to minor tragedy: the race between the three national yachts was due to start on 30 July 1903 at the Narverød (near Tønsberg) headquarters of Norsk Forening for Lystseilads (NFL - the national club which would merge with KYK into KNS). The night before there was a freak storm and MAGDA 3 was wrecked. Poor Christian Jensen! The Swedish competitor KATTEGAT and the Danish VERANA emerged unscathed and competed against each other, with VERANA winning both days.

Not deterred by this disaster, the Norwegians sent another challenge, this time to Denmark, and a consortium/syndicate was established to finance a new boat. Once again Christian Jensen was asked to deliver the goods. His second major design ATTAQUE, of 7 sail lengths, was launched with great jubilation (champagne bottle smashed against the bow and a dedicatory poem read out before the crowd!) on 13 June 1904 and off she went to Copenhagen. The defender of the Kattegat Trophy was now a new yacht PARADOX, designed by Alfred Bentzon. The Swedes were still content with their KATTEGAT. The record of the race states that ATTAQUE was extremely fast, but she had trouble with her sails and did not respond well to the rudder. She won the first day, PARADOX the second day, and on the final day ATTAQUE had a clear lead until the wind suddenly dropped. PARADOX crept up stealthily and won.

We can see the design drawings of ATTAQUE in the Jubilee Book. A long piece in small type was written in the book about the event down in Copenhagen by the lawyer and club member Aubert. Christian Jensen must have been almost a celebrity at this stage, as these international yachting competitions were taken seriously. If only his boat had won! Also in 1904 Jensen designed SAGA, another 7 sail lengths, and GLIMT in 1905, described as one of the best 6 metres according to the Copenhagen rule, and far ahead of its time.

On 7 June 1905 the Norwegians decided to break out of their Union with Sweden. The Swedish King, Oscar II, had been instrumental in forming the new constellation of KNS, a merger between the two clubs mentioned above, on 1 January 1905. Some yachtsmen may have regretted the Norwegian outburst, but the practical consequence was that sporting competition between the two nations was semi-paralysed. However, early on that summer Johan Anker had been helmsman on ATTAQUE representing Norway against Sweden (with a new boat PRINCESS MARGARET designed by Mellgren) and Denmark (with an altered VERANA again). Johan Anker was last in what must have been quite a strained competition for the Kattegat Trophy, with the situation between Norway and Sweden being what it was. Even so, by the end of the summer, Norwegian thoughts again turned towards a new Kattegat trophy challenge for 1906. This time a 9 sail lengths yacht was to be built for the event and a designing competition was set in motion. Svenningsen's design was preferred to Christian Jensen's, in spite of the fact that Jensen had successfully designed DAGNY and FLIRT in this size a little earlier. Obviously the fact that ATTAQUE had been beaten twice must have put off potential judges or backers of the designer Jensen.

Suddenly Johan Anker organized the necessary syndicate to finance the project and proposed his own design! He was determined to avenge his defeat with a new design from his own hands.We remember that Johan Anker had just bought himself into Jensen's yard as a partner. By doing this Anker puts himself on the map and outshines his partner. Johan Anker is certain he can design a faster boat. BRAND 2 is the result. This historic yacht is now a wreck but is hopefully going to be a restoration project before long, nearly 100 years after her launching. BRAND 2 won the Kattegat trophy for Norway, and the trophy is kept at KNS with successful defences up to the Ist World War.

Before we leave Christian Jensen's early designing work, we should note that in 1904 Jensen built the large yacht TAMARA, a 9 metre size, designed by Max Oertz. It was about this time that Jensen studied abroad with Fife and Oertz. A smaller 6 metre type TAMARA was designed and built by Jacob Iversen, who had established himself at Son, to the order of Halfdan Hansen. While Jensen must have learnt a considerable amount about design from Fife and Oertz, Iversen had studied in Boston. And now Johan Anker appeared like a comet. Suddenly the Norwegians had a "dream team" available of talented yacht designers who could succeed to the mantle of Colin Archer. They could now interpret the ideas behind the First International Rating Rule of 1906 to make yachts of amazing beauty, coupled with the never-ending quest for more speed. The long epoch of the "metre boats" now begins, with an international body, the International Yacht Racing Union founded in 1907, to run the races.

In the next episode, I will examine the relationship between Christian Jensen and Johan Anker during their partnership, which lasted until 1915. Together they created the winners for the increasingly international yachting competitions in the golden decade up to the outbreak of the First World War.