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Kapteyn & Stromenger

Cees Kapteyn and Klaus Stromenger are partners in the design office Kapteyn & Stromenger of Enkhuizen, Netherlands. They have been designing motor and sailing vessels for the private as well as the commercial market for some twelve years. Their designs are characterized by attractive, timeless lines, functionality, and space.

Klaus Stromenger came from air to sea: he used to design small aircraft, but when his company had to discontinue operation, he first became a skipper and then a designer of boats. MultiSurf is his design software of choice. Says Klaus: "We employ MultiSurf in a wide range of ways -- to design hulls, of course, the superstructure, and details to show the appearance of the boat. We also prepare the necessary components such as bulkheads, tank plating, floors, etc. to provide digital cutting information to the yards. Furthermore, I like the capability to attach weight to each drawn item, which is very useful for calculating the amount of steel. The results are astonishingly close to reality and indicate very well the cost of the hull. We also use MultiSurf for the weight calculations in general. In that case, we calculate e.g. the weight of a square meter of hull with paint, insulation, lining, etc., and find a very good average that way. In addition, one of my favorite features in MultiSurf is the capability of using components, which I do extensively (tanks, bulwark, deck, bulkheads, stations, heeled waterlines...)"

The timeless lines of K&S designs belie the fact that they are created in the most modern office environment: the surface design process is done with MultiSurf; several auxiliary programs are used for analyzing and fine-tuning the designs (VPP, Hydro). Even the project-management process is largely automated, with all individual steps laid out and controlled electronically. K&S usually oversee the whole process of designing and building a vessel, from initial sketches to interior design. Cees Kapteyn’s background is in mechanical engineering and he specializes in air conditioning, sanitary and other internal systems. He also is an experienced sailor with large vessels.

Oftentimes, K&S take an existing vessel and rebuild and refit it to the client’s specifications. Would you believe that this proud topsail schooner, Sir Robert Baden Powell, was once a dilapidated tugboat? MultiSurf is used in the redesigning process as well. Klaus describes: "As we regularly redesign existing hulls, we have to create a lines plan for those vessels. This is a time consuming and often dirty business because we have to measure the hull in a dock and it’s not always "technical weather" at this latitude. So we often call in the IMS yacht measurer who performs the actual measurement with his electro-mechanical "magic wand" and delivers the result, a digital "IMS offset file", to us. With the help of Reinhard Siegel (AeroHydro's European representative) we created a macro to convert this data into a MultiSurf file based on C-spline Curves. Well, it shows every bump and scar on the hull and represents the vessel much better than any hand measurement would do."

Left is another interesting K&S project: a traditional flat-bottom clipper ship, Lutgerdina, especially designed for handicapped people. Everything on this boat outside the engine room is accessible to wheelchair users. This, too, is an overhaul of an existing hull. A detail of Lutgerdina’s interior design is also shown. K&S are now looking for funding to build another one like Lutgerdina, but for ocean sailing.

K&S also design and produce deck equipment (cranes, davits, hatches, anchor gear etc.) for large motor yachts designed by other companies, such as the Dutch Feadship Group. Most of those vessel designs have been created in a CAD environment, but K&S sometimes use MultiSurf to recreate the exterior of the ship to see that the cranes fit in and can do their work without damage.

K&S have just started to work on a very exciting new project: a replica of Meteor V, which was the racing toy of Wilhelm II, the last German emperor. Her size alone is impressive: displacement 220 tons, sail area 1400 square meters, loa 60 meters, lwl 40 meters. The replica will have to meet some requirements the original didn’t, such as shallower draft to be able to navigate the Baltic harbors. Klaus will use MultiSurf to create a combination of a modern canoe body and a really breathtaking appearance above the waterline. This design will be something to look forward to!

It is a great pleasure to see MultiSurf used so creatively by these very talented naval architects. We wish them the best of success in all their endeavors.

Kapteyn & Stromenger
Paktuinen 93
1601 GE Enkhuizen
The Netherlands
tel. 0228-313 948
fax 0228-321 113
kapstro@wxs.nl