Introduction and Site Guide
Copyright 2010 Michael Kasten
Updated January 2010
What's This Web Site All About...?
Some have asked why I have bothered to put so much information on the web, and for free...?
The purpose of this site is to provide an introduction to our work, including articles about boats and examples of our boat designs. At this site you'll find over two hundred web pages and more than a thousand design images. The kind of information you'll find will consist of:
- CUSTOM DESIGN INFO: Our main focus is to create new Custom Yacht Designs. Whenever possible, we then develop those designs for NC Cutting.
- EXISTING DESIGNS: A variety of our designs ranging from 8 to 165 feet are linked from within our Motor Yacht and Sailing Yacht pages. They include large and small ocean-sailing craft, long range trawler-yachts, fast motor yachts, an occasional multi-hull, and even a few sailing dinghies... A list of our existing designs can be found on our Plans List Page.
- PROTOTYPE DESIGNS: If you are looking for a new boat, you might find that one of our existing designs will meet your requirements. But if not, it is possible you will find good inspiration among our various Prototype Designs and possibly consider creating a new design.
- ARTICLES: Our boat-related Articles are intended to help answer a variety of preliminary questions about boats, about boat building, and about boat design.
A complete outline of all the content at this domain will be found at our Site Map. To track current events, please bookmark our News web page.
Our Approach to Yacht Design
What is that special characteristic that makes a boat beautiful? What allows a boat to behave well under way? To return to port in good shape after a long passage? What makes the crew comfortable? What provides a good turn of speed? These are highly predictable qualities.
Our goal is to create the most practical design that will suit the intended service. We have built boats and we've owned boats. We've also cruised, voyaged, and raced in them. We bring those real-world experiences into each design, from its creation, analysis and detailing through to its construction and - at last, to boating...!
Performance, sea keeping, strength, economy and style... these are the qualities sought in one's habitat on the water. The word 'habitat' is quite intentional, for if the design is successful one will feel quite at home while onboard.
We design ocean cruising yachts, both power and sail. We work with a variety of materials including steel, aluminum, wood and composite. Our aim is to engender refined aesthetics along with safe and comfortable boating. Our design focus is on capable blue water craft for family cruising and world voyaging.
Our design work starts with listening to the requirements of our clients in order to propose the best solution to those requests in terms of vessel type, layout, size, style - in other words, appropriate form and function.
We provide a thorough analysis of structure, performance and stability in order to assure the resulting vessel will behave as intended. We strive for a smooth design and building process, and for long term owner satisfaction with the resulting vessel.
Standards...
When creating a new design, we use classification society rules as our guide for structure, and we use published criteria to assess stability.
Structure
- For Metal or GRP vessels under 24 meters (78 feet) destined for the Americas we specify structure according to the ABS Rule for Motor Yachts or for Sailing Yachts.
- For Metal or GRP vessels under 24 meters (78 feet) destined for the EU, Australia or New Zealand, we specify structure according to the EU-RCD standards (ISO-12215).
- For Metal or GRP vessels having a measurement length of 24 meters or larger, we use the MCA Large Yacht code, or the GL Yacht code as needed.
- For Wooden vessels we specify structure according to the ABS, British Lloyds or the Germanischer Lloyds Rule, depending on vessel size and venue.
Stability
- For vessels under 24 meters measurement length (78 feet), we assess stability according to the EU-RCD standards appropriate to the vessel type and intended use (ISO-12217).
- For vessels 24 meters measurement length and above, stability will be calculated according to IMO or other standards appropriate to the vessel type, size and use (MCA, GL, etc.).
- For charter yachts or passenger vessels in the US, safety and stability are assessed according to the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
When a vessel is destined for construction and use within the European Union, we can prepare documentation that makes CE Marking a relatively easy process for the EU builder. We work equally well with the metric system or the Imperial measurement system, according to the requirements of the project or the location where the vessel will be built.
Methods...
We use up to date methods, including software created specifically for the task of hull modeling, for stability and performance analyses, and for streamlining the construction process. This provides the best opportunity for a thorough analysis of hull form, and allows us to optimize the design in ways that were just not possible in years past.
Since we generate a complete model of each vessel by computer, we are able to offer an economical NC cutting file package for these designs in order to pre-cut the parts for the builder. The accuracy and labor savings that are possible by using this kind of computer cut "kit" will nearly always favor this path, whether the vessel will be professionally built or owner built.
Our goal is to provide a complete design service from the point of imagining a new vessel, through creating the ideal solution to those conjurings, then seeing that the vessel gets built as designed. In so doing we take the design all the way from the napkin sketch, through the genesis of complete building plans, to actual construction.
Isn't a custom yacht design expensive...? You may be surprised to know that creating a new custom yacht design costs less than a typical yacht broker's fee to buy an existing boat.
Isn't building a new custom yacht expensive...? When you consider that there are no hidden advertising costs and no yacht broker fees involved, custom building can indeed be very cost competitive.
For more information on our services and on the yacht design process itself, please continue....
The Design Team
The main ingredients in any successful project are of course the client and the other primary members of the "team" that is asked to create the vessel. The team includes the owner, the designer, and the builder. Each of these primary team members will engage others as needed for their expertise, such as a builder making use of various equipment suppliers and subcontractors.
Often overlooked are the various members of the designer's own team. Even though the various design team members are highly trained and extremely important to the timely production of drawings, they may not all be visible to the project as it develops. To address that situation, please see the Design Team page where you'll find a bit of background about each of us and provides an introduction to the team members that allow these projects to be a success.
The Process
Our design work is done on a custom basis. Each new design is a unique solution to the requirements presented. Please review our Custom Design page for a more complete description of the yacht design process.
As with any new venture there is first the idea and then the bringing forth of it into a functioning reality. My first task is to learn the requirements of each new client in order to understand what the vessel will be asked to do, its size, desired accommodations, available budget, preferred equipment, and myriad other details.
Once the owner's requirements are understood, I'll begin with a preliminary computer generated model of the vessel and its superstructure. Several such models may be seen within our Prototypes web pages.
Once the preliminary computer model has been created, a preliminary layout can be sketched. This Preliminary Design Study is done in order to coordinate the layout with the general configuration.
Once a clear strategy has been determined and approved, we will begin to detail the Accommodations and the Rig and how those relate to the Structure.
The design is developed first as Preliminary Drawings, then as a set of Estimating Plans, and then as a completed set of Building Plans.
Computer Modeling
Having created the computer model at the outset I'm assured of knowing in advance what the specific hydrostatics will be, and can optimize the design right from the start. As a result of having modeled many hulls by computer I now have quite a number of prototypes from which to choose when creating a new design, permitting a new design study to be done very quickly.
With the computer generated geometry of the hull and superstructure already having been created, it is a simple matter to leverage that effort via NC cutting to build the boat, or NC shaping to create a hull model for towing tank testing or for a styling model in order to view the look of the actual three dimensional vessel in advance.
For the complete story of how we make effective use of CAD throughout the design process, including NC file genesis, please see our CAD Design Stream article.
How Does One Begin...?
The design process actually begins with the prospective boat owner, and involves defining the purpose of the intended vessel, the overall size, preferred materials, required accommodations and so forth.
Ideally, these requirements will be articulated in a brief 'mission statement' and maybe a few simple sketches to communicate the concept. Once the owner's 'mission statement' has been articulated, the rest involves creating the right design solution to suit those requests.
As noted above, it will likely come as a surprise to discover that the cost of creating a new and completely unique boat design is actually less than the usual brokerage fee charged for simply signing a few papers when purchasing a new or used boat..!
Our Custom Design page provides a complete description of the design process and outline of the possible benefits of creating a new vessel design.
Should you become interested in the possibility of creating a custom yacht design, please inquire. I'll be pleased to send you my usual written Design Proposal via return email. It is an outline of the design process, a list of the deliverable drawings and documents, and an estimate for the design work involved.
If you're curious to see what our clients have said about our work, check out our Testimonials page...
Study Plans and Building Plans
Nearly all of our current small craft design work is represented on these web pages. Study Drawings and Estimating Plans are available for the majority of our designs. Even if the Study Drawings for an existing design may not exactly match "your own" boat concept, they provide an excellent preview of our work and possibly good inspiration for what you'd like.
Building Plans are available for most of the boats listed on our Motor Yacht and Sailing Yacht web pages. A complete list of our boat plans is on the Plans List Page.
More Information and Writings
Between 1995 and 2000 I edited and published the Metal Boat Quarterly for the Metal Boat Society (Issues #1 through #23). The Metal Boat Society is a non-profit organization begun in 1987 to further popular interest in Metal Boats.
During my editorship, my focus was to foster traditional aesthetics, responsible design, accuracy of information, to share the tricks of successful metal boat building and maintenance, and to educate MBQ readers in matters related to boat design.
These efforts were aimed toward mid-range blue water cruising yachts, both power and sail, with the intent that the Metal Boat Quarterly become a true resource for metal boat designers, for metal boat builders both professional and amateur, and for metal boat owners.
Among our web pages you will find a number of Articles that I originally wrote for the MBQ. Included are several of my MBQ Editorials.
If you'd like to keep track of current events at Kasten Marine Design, please bookmark our News page.
Above all, we hope you enjoy your journey through these web pages...!
Member
Royal Institution
of Naval Architects
Member
Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers
Member
Society of Boat
and Yacht Designers
Member
American Boat
and Yacht Council
Member
Metal Boat
Society
Please see the Plans List page to review our available Boat Plans.
- All Web Site Graphics, Layout, and Written Content at this Domain Created by Michael Kasten.
- All Graphic and Written Materials at this Domain Copyright © 1989 - 2010 Michael Kasten.
- All Content Registered with US Library of Congress and US Copyright Office.
- Copyright Violations will be Prosecuted. All Rights Reserved.
