At a ceremony at the Fagerdala Group’s headquarters in Gustavsberg Harbour, Sweden, on Friday 3 December at 4 pm, the classification company Germanischer Lloyd handed over its approval to Fagerdala Marine Systems AB for its double hull system. The system was devised in the 1980s by Sven Jönsson from Dalarö, who also took part in the ceremony. Fagerdala Marine Systems AB was represented by its managing director, Anders Tunbjer, and Fagerdala Group owner, Dag Landvik.
The certification is the result of a 28 year long project leading to the commercialisation of Sven Jönsson’s revolutionary double hull system for yachts and vessels. So much time was needed for this maritime technology innovation to be developed and to prove its durability before it could finally be approved for commercial use. It is a fascinating story. 

In 1982, Sven Jönsson had the opportunity to acquire the old luxury yacht belonging to the late  Swedish financier, Torsten Kreuger, called at the time the Edi II. Constructed in 1939 at Götaverken from German aircraft grade aluminium and fitted with three Rolls Royce Merlin V12 petrol engines, this 34 m long beauty was the fastest displacement yacht in the world at the time. Today, with new engines, she is surpassed only by the Aga Khan’s “Shergar”. However, when Sven acquired the Edi II, she was in a pitiful state. His first thought was to fit her out as a veteran yacht, but in view of the buckled state of the hull, Sven soon realised that this would be far too expensive. Instead, he came up with the idea of applying a new hull on top of the old one by using a specially developed glue, implemented in 30 mm expanded plastic, followed by levelling and then another layer of fibre glass laminate. Thus, the Edi II was given an innovative new hull with a partially modified shape, but that was not all: the hull now had structural reinforcement as well as thermal insulation, sound insulation, vibration-damping and crash resistant properties, besides being virtually maintenance free. Thirty million kronor later, renovation work was almost complete on the Edi II when the financial crisis of 1992 struck and the project foundered. The King of Sweden was on the point of buying the yacht when Dagens Industri newspaper of Sweden noted: “Torsten Kreuger’s old luxury yacht goes bust” – and that the sharks were circling in the water. The Edi II was instead sold to a foreign buyer and Antibes on the French Riviera became her home port, where she was renamed United Spirit and came to be known as “the fast Swede” – frequently with the King and Queen on board as guests. 

In the mid-1990s, Dag Landvik of Fagerdala World Foams and Sven Jönsson were in contact with a view to commercialising the invention.

The idea was then also to make...