E.G. van de Stadt
Ericus (Ricus) Gerhardus van de Stadt (4 February 1910, Zaandam - 1999) was a Dutch yacht designer. He was the founder of industrial yacht building in the Netherlands. [1][2]
E.G. van de Stadt went through the HTS (technical college) and started a shipyard in Zaandam and a shipswarf and design company for small wooden boats. In 1936 he went to the Olympic Games as a reserve for the Olympia-boat in 1936.
In 1939 van de Stadt designed the Valk for the Bruynzeel company to demonstrate the possibilities of their new product "hechthout" (a type of plywood). The Valk has been a resounding success over many years. Adding the later polyester versions ("Polyvalk"), this boat is now probably the most popular open sailboat on the Dutch waters.
Ricus van de Stadt later designed a seaworthy raceversion of the Valk for Kees Bruynzeel, the Zeevalk. In 1952 this boat would win the Fastnet race.
In 1958 followed the Pionier, a 9-metre-long sailboat with the then relative new material polyester. The design was a great success. The light boat won many international matches.
The first maxi yacht came from Ricus van de Stadt's drawing board. The 70 foot ocean racer Stormvogel emerged in 1960.
A few other boats that Ricus van de Stadt designed are the Efsix, Stern, Spanker, Randmeer and Wibo. Key to the designs of Van de Stadt are their daring design, simplicity and good sailing.
From 1973 the Van de Stadt company fully concentrated on design after it sold the yard to Dehler. The name was changed to EG van de Stadt & Partner. Ricus would continue working there until 1978. The design team now works using the name Van De Stadt Design[3], and is still led by Cees van Tongeren who started working for Ricus in the late 1960s.
Sources
Autobiography (Dutch)
References
- ↑ Articles from "de Waterkampioen"
- ↑ Boats for the common man
- ↑ Van De Stadt Design website Retrieved 2010-01-18.
