Helping yards to help themselves

He is talking as someone who has consistently ‘stepped outside’ his comfort zone. From a background helping ports with industrial processes, he moved across disciplines to lend a hand to an associate with a vessel design business, and fifteen years ago found himself in the driving seat of a company that could help firms move into the CAD age.

His point is that many firms could let themselves be assisted by the application of a little judicious design technology which would help them to help themselves, and give the industry a bit more confidence when it comes to classification too.

“While it used to be that boat builders could simply stick to a couple of designs, the market is now changing very rapidly and workboats need to become much more tailored”, he said. Certainly he is talking about a very broad spectrum. For example, Tehnomont HR in Croatia has used the packages for both a fast patrol boat and a ferry design.

Mr van Smaalen adds that he has seen firsthand how companies that resisted the inevitable tide of technology tended to get sunk by its backwash. However, he also knows how hard it can be to embrace change, saying: “The aim is to help small to mid-sized European yards become more attractive, even against the pull toward cheap Asian builds, by giving them that extra capability. The fact is that many owners would far rather stay with the people they know, even if it’s just to keep on top of the maintenance and spares, but of course they will go if they can’t find the design they want.”

It’s not necessarily that easy to convince people. “Some yards are naturally suspicious and think that their profit will go out of the window if they involve us, even if the reverse is actually true.”

He points out that getting a tailored package from the start, with everything precisely CAD cut and all the extras included, “also avoids restarting half of the development process to account for design tweaks”. The aim, he says, is to have a build that “slots together as smoothly as an Ikea unit”, and has the customised specifications integrated from the beginning.

However, he’s a realist: “I’m sure that after we get an approach from a yard, there’s going to be a moment where they are looking at a very long questionnaire with things like ‘preference for bulkhead materials’, and they really wonder if it’s worth it. Some people just don’t want to work this way, but if they can, I know what we do really helps, and we do have a lot of yards coming back to us.”

By Stevie Knight