Finnish shipyard Baltic Yachts has announced the death of its co-founder Jan-Erik “Janne” Nyfelt on January 28. Nyfelt was one of the five founders of the shipyard in 1973. PG Johansson, a fellow co-founder, released the following statement on the company website:

Last Saturday, 28 January, we were reached by a very sad and shocking message. Our long-term Baltic Yachts family member, friend, colleague and one of the Baltic Yachts' original founders, Jan-Erik “Janne” Nyfelt had passed away. Baltic Yachts lost a person that has contributed greatly to what Baltic Yachts is today. A great loss for the company and for me personally the loss of a person, a friend, that I have held in extremely high regard and that has been an enormous support for me through all my years in the yachting industry.

“Jannes“ career as a boatbuilder started from a very young childhood working in his father's small boatbuilding shop. Undoubtedly one of the best ways of learning the practical side of the trade. In addition to his practical yacht-building skills, he also wanted to learn more about design, calculations, making line drawings and the theoretical side of creating a boat. He worked, sometimes, for a local ship's engineer and got good insight also into the theoretical side. 

He was involved in the start of Nautor, not as an owner but as a boatbuilding specialist. He was also one of the 5 persons starting Baltic Yachts and was a very active member in management and the development of our company until his retirement. His legacy to the local boatbuilding industry is invaluable.

Janne was a person that had never-ending energy always intensively involved in many things. Very keen on developing new materials and methods everything that could improve the product. Whatever he got himself involved in he was in with full energy.

He was a respected member of our Baltic Yachts family and will be greatly missed.

For me personally, he was a great support and countless times we sat together solving problems, developing new things, going through the complexity of yacht design, or just discussing life in general. There are no words enough to describe a person like “Janne”. For me, he leaves an empty space that cannot be filled but also leaves some of the best and most valuable memories one can have.

Farewell, my friend and thank you for your comradeship through the years. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family.

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