Sorry to have taken last week off. It was a rare occasion in which I was wearing a suit and holding down the booth at the annual METS trade show in Holland.
We’ve been exhibiting at METS for almost 20 years, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends and to make new ones. In the latter regard, I was able to catch up with Gerard Petersen, a Dutch designer whose work I’ve been following for several years. Here’s a sample of one of his most recent, KENAU:
Here’s the design brief:
· A fast and silent motorboat leaving low wake
· Combine the advantages of electrical propulsion with an efficient hullform
· Design something very attractive
· Focus on the benefits for the owner, the environment will be enthusiastic too
· Build a demonstrator for everyone who likes to be surprised
· Build boats to order for people who like this for themselves
To view more of Gerard’s work, please see his website: http://www.scheepsbouwkunst.nl. I find many of his designs challenging and appealing. What do YOU think? Please post comments below.
I was also able to meet Wipke Iwersen who (you may recall) was featured here in our first installment in this series. You can read that post by selecting “March 2009.”
Wipke will be setting out in the summer of 2010 to search for WINDVINDER.
If you’d like to join her as crew during the search for WINDVINDER, please go to her website — It’s a fascinating read:
I’ll feature some other interesting designs from Europe in the weeks ahead.
For those of you who stopped by our booth (which was not easy to find), thank you so much. Please email me any of YOUR interesting designs for future consideration here: carl@woodenboat.com.




