Boats and Business

Peter Nicholson is an extraordinarily accomplished man. As one of the last generations to be called up for National Service, he joined the Fleet Air Arm and learned to land aircraft on an aircraft carrier. He was the fourth generation of the Nicholson family to run the world-famous boatbuilding company Camper & Nicholsons. Nicholson has been a highly successful racing sailor, often in boats to whose design he contributed. Amongst several other maritime administration positions, he was Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron and Chairman of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, overseeing various innovative projects in both cases.


After his involvement with Camper & Nicholsons ended in the early 1980s, Nicholson successfully branched out into a number of other businesses, including housing development, local radio, banking, shipping, finance, jewellery retail, building tennis courts and swimming pools, and the production of heat pumps, spectacles and electrical components.


He has enjoyed several sports other than sailing, and has been a proficient golfer and skier, still tackling black runs at the age of 91. This is his story.