It is often imagined that a designer works alone. While many may
attempt to do so, it is more typical for a designer to work as a member
of a larger team.
As always, the primary members of the larger team are the vessel owner,
the yacht design office, and the boat builder. Among those, the boat builder
and the design office cannot easily survive without making good use of
additional talent wherever it is available, not the least of which are the
various suppliers of equipment, each of whom will contribute their
engineering expertise to the project, whether for sail making, rigging,
hydraulics, electronics, or other disciplines.
Often overlooked are the various members of a designer's own 'design team.'
We make use of talented local design team members whenever we can - which is
essentially whenever they are available! Even though these "in-house"
team members are highly trained and extremely important to the timely
production of drawings,
they may not always be so visible.
In order to properly give credit where it is due, the following is a
brief introduction to those whose efforts help to make the projects at
Kasten Marine Design a success.
Michael Kasten
My
academic degree is in Philosophy. I have learned yacht design by
active independent study, by working with talented yacht designers, and by
actually doing the work involved on my own designs, at
various yacht building yards, and as a consultant to other designers for a
variety of engineering tasks. For maximum familiarity with my design work
please take the time to look through this web site. It is quite
complete in terms of my current design work.
Having worked with other yacht design teams, I've had the chance to participate
in the design of several large motor vessels between 80 feet and 160 feet LOA
in fiberglass. These craft are absolutely the best available. Two of those
yachts won "best of show" during different years in Monaco.
One of those vessels, the 160' motor yacht Evviva, won the
best new yacht at Monaco during the year the vessel was presented by the
owner, Orin Edson. Another, the 100' motor yacht Lady Dianne, won the best
refit during the year in which the vessel was presented by owners, Mario and
Dianne Antoci. Although my work
with large fiberglass yachts does not appear on my web site, please take a
peek at
the excellent 100' motor yacht Lady Dianne to see one of those
vessels
under way.
In addition to a variety of composite vessels, I have worked with traditional plank on
frame wooden vessels large and small; cold molded wooden vessels; and
light weight cored panel structures including yacht interiors. I
have also worked very extensively with steel and aluminum vessels.
Most of the vessels on our web pages fall into this latter category: metal boats.
We are however quite well versed in the use of other materials for boats...!
For a recent example of the extreme in heavy plank-on-frame wooden
vessels, please see our Indonesian Phinisi
project, built in the centuries-old Bugis tradition of South Sulawesi.
This vessel was listed among the
top 10 super-yachts in Asia-Pacific Boating magazine's annual roundup of
"Asia's Top 30 Superyachts" during both 2004 and 2005. Among those
peers, the 36m Phinisi was awarded "Best
New Sailing Yacht" in SE Asia during the year of her launch, 2004.
Take a look... you will quickly see why!
For
quite an opposite example of the extreme in light weight wooden structure,
please see the float plane project for which I did the computer modeling and
hydrostatics for the floats using Maxsurf. You can see it flying
here.
In between those extremes is the main body of our work. You can
review our various existing designs at our
Sail and Power yacht web pages, as well as
several concept designs at our Prototypes web page.
For a complete description of how we approach creating a new yacht design,
please check out our Custom Design web page.
To read a few clients' commentaries about our work, please see our
Testimonials web page.
Having built, owned and sailed my own 34' steel schooner,
Emerald, I absolutely know
the benefits of a simple, rugged and seaworthy vessel. In developing
any new design it is my goal to specify structure that makes sense to a
builder; hull forms that make sense on the open ocean; features that provide
for easy handling and low maintenance throughout the life of a boat; to
provide a classic and pleasing aesthetic; and to make use of modern
materials and methods wherever they have proven to be practical. Nearly all of my designs are intended for long range ocean voyaging -
therefore any of them are also quite well suited to coastal cruising.
My every-day role is to work with an owner's specific requests in order
to create appropriate design solutions, first via a series of preliminary
sketches and drawings, then to work those into a set of plans so the vessel
can be built. In so doing my primary tasks are to assure that the
design meets the requirements of the owner; to coordinate our other team
members for a timely result; and to assure that the vessel complies with the
applicable rules and standards for boats. The work includes computer
modeling; determining structure; analyzing weights and stability; creating
building plans; and performing CAD detailing if the vessel will be NC cut.
It has been a strong focus among my designs to encourage a
"modern-classic" approach to boat styling and boat function. The idea
is to combine the classic elements of grace, simplicity and practicality,
with the strength and performance offered by modern analysis methods, modern
materials, and modern construction methods. To read a little more about
what's behind this thinking, check out a few of the
Editorials I have written over the years.
In addition to creating new designs, I continue to make improvements to
the design process itself, such as developing comprehensive spreadsheets to
determine vessel weights, performance under power or sail, analysis of
structure per the various classification society rules, and in
order to assess sailing and power vessel stability according to a variety of
internationally recognized criteria such as have been developed by the ISO. This ongoing research and
development is the natural result of a nearly insatiable natural
curiosity... in this case directed toward boat design!
For a small window into our daily routine, please check out our various
Articles - in particular those on our
CAD Design Stream and on
Learning Yacht Design provide a good snapshot of our working life.
Although the business of boat design is an all-consuming endeavor, I'm
occasionally able to enjoy boating, writing, blues music, good wine, poetry,
and even classic cars. For a somewhat unusual example of this latter
pursuit please have a peek at our Berlinetta
project of some years ago; possibly a candidate for being a bit "wild and
crazy..."
Lena Kasten
Having been raised in Sweden, Lena studied couture and costume design for
the theater in Copenhagen. Along with being an outstanding chef, my wife
Lena is a gifted artist with a special talent for drawing, illustrating and
drafting. You will see several of her fine illustrations and drawings
throughout this web site.
Lena's efforts around here are otherwise in the realm of helping to keep
our daily lives organized while we attempt to make a living designing
boats...!
Lena's true joys are her family, drawing, painting, wood carving,
landscaping, gardening, swimming, cooking, and our two excellent dogs...!
Arild J.
Our electrical and electronics wizard....! An electrical engineer by
trade, Arild brings a practical approach to the table as well as
considerable experience with marine systems.
Given that we have rather strict requirements as to grounding, in particular
on metal yachts, Arild has the creativity and technical expertise to design
electrical systems to meet any challenge. Whether a yacht will travel
amongst North American harbors, the water ways of Europe, or anywhere in
Asia, we know our electrical systems will be up to the task.
Carl C.
Carl has been involved with boating since childhood. Carl's father
built a 57' Herreshoff Tioga design in Spain, and subsequently sailed
it on many voyages throughout the Caribbean as a charter vessel. With that
kind of experience as his heritage, Carl has naturally bent his life's work
toward boats and boating.
During the past 20 years, Carl has been actively involved in the design
and building of several excellent boats. Among many other fine
examples, the Cape George Cutters are well known in the Puget Sound
area, some of which are his own designs. Carl has also been teaching
boat design at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
Carl's work here centers around designing, drafting and detailing all
aspects of a vessel, from keel to masthead or from bow-thruster to
passerelle... Carl is equally versed in the engineering of structure
and systems; the elements of sailing performance; and the aesthetics of
classic yacht design.
When not actively designing boats, Carl seems to always be thinking
of designing boats. On sunny days, Carl can be somewhat hard to
find...! Predictably, he will be enjoying life close to the water in
some way or other.
Jarek K.
In addition to having an extensive knowledge of several high end CAD
systems, Jarek has a solid foundation in the elements of yacht design.
This extends all the way from having completed a Master's thesis on the
romantic writings of Joseph Conrad; to having sailed over 25,000 NM
world-wide; to having taught cruising under sail; to having spent a number
of years building boats; to having completed a full course of Yacht Design
at the Landing School of Yacht Design; to having worked as a yacht designer
in a variety of roles.
In addition to those multiple talents, Jarek is excellent with CAD
detailing as well as the genesis of NC cutting files, the means by which we
put our designs into actual production right here on the computer!
Sterling H.
Hey wait a minute...! What's Sterling Hayden doing here...??
In his book "Wanderer" Sterling Hayden gave us all quite a few
words of inspiration, without which many of us may not have begun our
journeys amongst boats, nor possibly ever gone boating...! He has
written well the following taunt... shall we listen:
"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm
foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine
traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea...
"cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of
the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage
and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only
then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it."
What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the
cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling
our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives
are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each
day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working
activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the
material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic
system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments,
mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for
the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie
caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is
sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer?
In choice...!
Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life...?
- Sterling Hayden
