D. Koopmans Jachtontwerpers founded in 1961
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As well as designing new yachts, I can assist you with alterations to your present boat.
To design your yacht, I use modern computer software. However, with every new design I start with an empty sheet of paper on my drawing board. When I have sufficient information on the design that you would like, I feed this into the computer. To optimise the designs I am a member of the research group Yachts of TUDelft and use the latest velocity prediction programs (vpp). I have several design programs so I can offer drawings in 2D and 3D and 1:1 plots.
The Beginning
Dick Koopmans Sr. started the Company in 1961, his first commissions were motorboats. However, with Dick being passionate about sailing, gradually he received more and more requests for the designs of sailing yachts. Up to 1985, he worked on his own, but when Dick Jr. graduated from the School for Advanced Technology VOF D. Koopmans Jachtontwerpers was established.
Although most of our designs are cruisers, a number of our boats were and are still very successful in local and international racing events such as The North-Sea Race, The Fastnet, The Round Britain & Ireland and The OSTAR.
Renowned trips with a Koopmans' design started with the single-handed trips of Eilco Kazemier and Cees den Hartoog. In 1973 Eilco Kasemier in Bylgia circumnavigated from east to west including Cape Horn. In 1977 Cees den Hartoog sailed to Australia and back in Sentijn. Since then many expeditions have been made from Spitsbergen to Antarctica. More recent are the over-wintering trips to Greenland by the Haverkamp family between 2009 and 2014. In 2013 a transit of the Northwest Passage was made by Mark van de Weg in Jonathan III. Nowadays there is a Koopmans' design somewhere on passage in every ocean.
D. Koopmans Jr.
Dick Koopmans Jr. was born in 1962. From a young age, building model boats was a favourite pastime of Dick’s. By building and sailing such small boats, he gained a good insight into how a sailing yacht functions. Building model boats from drawings gave him a good understanding of the connection between a 2D drawing and a 3D construction. After graduating from the School for Advanced Technology in 1986, he started his career as a yacht designer.
Besides designing yachts, Dick is a passionate racer. He won the Round Britain & Ireland Race twice and was 3rd in The OSTAR 2009. He has also done a lot of cruising, Tahiti, Spitsbergen, Iceland, the Faeroes and many other places have been explored. So far, he has sailed more than 150.000 miles on different boats. His plan is to sail many more in the future, besides visiting places and meeting people.
D. Koopmans Sr.
Dick Koopmans Sr. was born in 1935. A keen racer, Dick Koopmans Sr. started the office in 1961. According to one of his clients, he learned the trade from his father who was a funeral director and built coffins! Dick, however, had a keen eye for shape and to improve his skills he went to the School for Advanced Technology in Haarlem.
Besides racing, Dick sailed every weekend and holiday during the summer with the family. By 1979, he found it difficult to combine racing and cruising with the same boat so he designed a centreboard yacht, named Jantine IV, which the family sailed to places like the Azores and Spitsbergen. Later together with his wife Elly, he sailed Jantine V to Patagonia, Antarctica and the Pacific.