Dutch designer Pieter Beeldsnijder passes away

Pieter Beeldsnijder, a Dutch yacht designer with a career spanning almost 60 years, has died at the age of 78.

Beeldsnijder was not only a renowned designer in Holland, but also one of the superyacht industry’s longest contributing designers. He began his career working on flat-bottomed sailing vessel, De Groene Draeck, in 1957. The finished product was presented to Princess Beatrix on her 18^th birthday, as a gift from the Dutch people. The yacht is still owned by the royal family today.

Over the length of his career, Beeldsnijder contributed over 2,500 yacht and shipbuilding designs, and won a host of awards. He launched his own design studio in 1979 in Edam and collaborated with a number of Dutch yacht builders including Royal Huisman.

One of Beeldsnijder’s best-known designs was for Royal Huisman’s 47m sailing superyacht Hyperion, built in 1998. Hyperion picked up a number of accolades from the industry awards that year, including Best Sail 36+ for the International Superyacht Design Award.

Other well-known designs by Beeldsnijder for Royal Huisman included 32m sailing yacht Gliss, completed in 2006, and 42m sailing yacht Hanuman. On the Pieter Beeldsnijder website, he had written, “A new yacht is similar in many ways to a great building. It must be functional and efficient—it should have no extra parts that can complicate operations, no extraneous elements that will compromise pleasure.

“With this in mind, it is then easier for me to translate function and efficiency directly into beauty and quality. Then I use only appropriate, exquisite materials, which never need to be fussed over to reveal their inherent strength and aesthetic value. Every yacht I deliver is my pride—I give every yacht my all.”