E. G. van de Stadt

Ericus (Ricus) Gerhardus van de Stadt (4 February 1910 – 7 September 1999) was a Dutch yacht designer. He was the founder of industrial yacht building in the Netherlands.[1][2]

Yacht designer

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E.G. van de Stadt went through the HTS (technical college), completing his training as a naval architect in 1932.[3] With the help of family and friends, he started a shipyard in Zaandam and a ships wharf and design company for small wooden boats.[3] In 1936, he went to the Olympic Games as a reserve for the Netherlands Olympic sailing team.[3][clarification needed]

In 1939, van de Stadt designed the Valk[4] 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.[5]

Ricus van de Stadt later designed a seaworthy race version of the Valk for Kees Bruynzeel, the Zeevalk. In 1952 this boat would come first in her class and second overall in the Fastnet race.[6]

The Pioneer followed in 1958, a 9-metre-long sailboat with the then relative new material polyester.[7] The design was a great success. The light boat won many international matches.

The hull lines for the first maxi yacht came from Ricus van de Stadt's drawing board. The 70-foot ocean racer Stormvogel emerged in 1960.[8][9]

A few other boats that Ricus van de Stadt designed are the Voortrekker, Efsix,[10] Stern (One Design dinghy class),[11] Spanker (the name was used for both '19'[12] and '42'[13] -feet loa- designs), Randmeer[14] and Wibo.[15] From the open-decked Randmeer[16] was to follow the Trotter the next year (in 1963; with a small cabin),[17] and the Trotter-Pandora in 1967 (with more freeboard).[18] In turn, this was to evolve to the Pandora (Mk1) in 1968,[19] the Pandora International in 1973[20] and the Pandora 700 in 1976.[21] The Prospect 900 was designed circa 1975,[22] and many other yacht designs began on his drawing board.[23] 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 & Partners. Ricus continued working there until 1978. The design team now works using the name Van De Stadt Design,[24] and is still led by Cees van Tongeren who started working for Ricus in the late 1960s.

Sailboatdata.com lists a total of 150 yachts designed by E.G. van de Stadt.[23]

Designs

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References

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  1. ^ Articles from "de Waterkampioen" ("the Water Champion") -Archived copy, accessed 29 April 2018; originally at astolat.nl
  2. ^ Boten voor de gewone man (Boats for the common man), accessed 29 April 2018; originally at natrix.demon.nl, 22 September 2001
  3. ^ a b c Autobiography Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine (Dutch) Retrieved 2 January 2017
  4. ^ "Valk-Falcon".
  5. ^ Valk Zeilboot - Zeewolde, NL www.botentehuur.nl, accessed 11 November 2020
  6. ^ Zeevalk in 'historic yachts' dated 2013/06, rnyc.org.uk Retrieved 9 January 2017
  7. ^ Pioneer sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  8. ^ Video: sailing on Stormvogel yachtingworld.com, Retrieved 9 January 2017
  9. ^ Data on e-g-van-de-stadt-laurent-giles-and-john-Illingworth Stormvogel classicsailboats.org, Retrieved 9 January 2017
  10. ^ Efsix sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  11. ^ Stern One Design dinghy class mentioned at stadtdesign.com/pages/history, Retrieved 9 January 2017
  12. ^ Spanker 19 sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  13. ^ Spanker 42 sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  14. ^ Randmeer sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  15. ^ Wibo 990 sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  16. ^ Sailboat specifications for Randmeer Archived 2017-01-10 at the Wayback Machine sailingjoy.com, Retrieved 9 January 2017
  17. ^ Trotter sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  18. ^ Trotter-Pandora sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  19. ^ Pandora (Mk1) sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  20. ^ Pandora International sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  21. ^ Pandora 700 sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 2 January 2017
  22. ^ Prospect 900 Archived 2016-10-24 at the Wayback Machine sailboatdata.com, Retrieved 1 January 2017
  23. ^ a b Page for Van Der Stadt designs at sailboatdata.com Retrieved 1 January 2017
  24. ^ Van De Stadt Design website Retrieved 2010-01-18.