Introducing myself

Goodevening you all, I just want to introduce myself to your forum

First things first; I am a student naval architecture in the Netherlands. I study in Rotterdam this very moment. The next half-year I have to get some practical experience and so I am going to a company called Rhebergen composites construction (www.composieten.com). Here I am going to work on a superstructure of a motorship. The ship's length is approx. 86 metres, the superstructure will be approx. 26 metres.

As a sailing enthousiast, I am dying to design my own ship. I am (in my opinion) a quite skilled sailor and I therefore want a fast ship. It's length would be something between 9 and 10 metres over all. I have certain visions on details of the ship, but I can not really get started. I have experienced in school that we use the Lloyds register and other classification materials to determine the size of bulkheads, deck thickness and so on. Now I think hardly anything like the Lloyds is available for the sailing yachts I am thinking of. Can anybody give an idea of how the started designing their own ship? And did this ship forefill your expectations?

To give you an idea what type of modern ships I like: X-yachts, J-boats, Waarschip (I do not know if they are common outside the Netherlands), Melges, Mumm, Max fun etc etc. (Only 1 thing about this; I do absolutely not want the stays at the aft of the ship which you have to adjust [forgot the name. I do know the dutch word though ]).

Can anybody help me?

Coen Meerbach
The Netherlands

 

Welcome Coen,

Always glad to see another Dutchman on the forum. Hope you find the info and responces your looking for here.
I graduated in Rotterdam, but I understood the education moved to Delft, or are you the last of the Mohicans?
Well, be seeing you around on the net and maybe in the end of October when we have the annual gathering of “ Dordtse & Rotterdamse Scheepsbouwers”.

 

ABS has rules for offshore racing yachts, reinforced plastic vessels, high speed vessels, etc. http://www.eagle.org/rules.html

But I thought the EU "nanny" had already come up with a whole set of rules (the RCD) to prevent the building of indigenous pleasure craft, or so the story goes on this side of the pond.

 

Your side of the pond is far away, that's for sure ;-)

The ABS doesn't support the rules for the classification of offshore racing yacht any more.

Lloyd's have their SSC-rules. They are oriented more towards larger yachts, but can be used for smaller ones, too.

Germanischer Lloyd's have rules for yachts, too.

The ISO Standards referred to in the Recreational Craft Directive are mandatory, at least in the EU. The standards concerning the scantlings are not approved yet, but so far it seems that they will allow lighter scantlings than the rules mentioned above.

 

The RCD (Recreational Craft Directive) has solely come to live to lift tradebarriers within the EU (and to raise them for outsiders??).
It's basically saying the vessel, construction and equipment/installation has to be fit for it's purpose!
That's no guidance for designing an X or J.

Coen,

Look on this forum about boatbuilding books (thread: good first book).
For Rules: try DNV, GL, LLoyd's also has rules for racing yachts and a copy of the old "yachts and small craft rules" is a good guide, ABS (can't forget that one!!)
Most important parts of the EU standards are still in draft status, but the drafts can be used (it's the minimum you need to comply with).

Good luck.

 

Thank you for your interest!

Dutch Peter; Yes, I am a 3rd year student in Delft. I did my first year in R'dam and then moved over.
I'll have a look at 'good first books' and we will see on.

Thank you all!

 

I just want to give you some more info about myself.

I started sailing when I was 7. This was at a sailingschool (aquavitesse, Bruinisse, the Netherlands for people interested) in the optimist.

Short after having my first sailing experience, I bought my own dinghy. A fibreglass Schakel. 4.8 metres long woth a small jib and main.

I kept going to the sailing school for the next 8 or 9 years. I sailed the optimist, centauer, laser 2, RS400, Splash and off course the catamaran (Nacra 500 & Prindle 18).

I sold my schakel and bought my first catamaran when I was 14 or so. My first cat was a Nacra 5.0 which I sailed with my dad. On this boat we really learned trimming the boat. The next boat was a Nacra Inter 18, as I mentioned in an other threat. I kept this for two years but due to other upcoming interests (I was 17... you all know what that means) my interest in sailing was set to a lower rank. Nowadays I do not have my own yacht or dinghy anymore.

I have become a sailing instructor on the same sailingschool as I learned sailing. I am an instructor for 4 years now.

I (match) raced J22's, I raced several cats, the valk, and I try to do a race on yachts every once in a while.

I am studing naval architecture, but in my opinion this study is to focussed on big tankers and containervessels and so on, and not on hull design. Hull design is the thing I like. I have my own visions about what a yacht should look like and I want to look if they are right in the future.

So now, I am 19 years old, and have two major interests; sailing&yacht design and motorcycle riding (I own my own Ducati for people interested).

I hope to learn a lot from this forum and to help people with their problems if possible. Off course I am not a certified yacht designer but I am willing to give my opinion and you all can see if you like it or not.

CM