Dušan Antić Dipl.-Ing.

Dušan Antić Dipl.-Ing. Serbia

 

I was born in Belgrade, a city placed on the Danube River, one of the major European inland waterways. From my early days I was "messing about in boats". It didn’t take too long before I made a final decision for my future profession. My interest was in high speed craft so I made and tested plenty of radio controlled speed boats. 

In 2000 I enrolled Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at University of Belgrade, Department of Naval Architecture. During studies, I spent most of my time researching high speed craft dynamic instability phenomena, although I was interested in empirical method for high speed vessel resistance calculations.  For my final paper I was doing research in seakeeping of merchant and cargo ships. Objectives of work were to determine spontaneous looses of speed at different sea states. My final paper was rated with the highest mark. 

After I finished my Master studies, in 2006, I was employed as a teaching assistant at Department of Naval Architecture, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in University of Belgrade. At the same time I started with PhD studies and continued in further analysis of merchant ships seakeeping. 

In the middle of 2007, I started working as an engineer in ArtOfKinetik, a small wooden boat facility. At first, it was a part time job having in mind that I was already employed as a teaching assistant. My first project was a little water jet tender boat. It was completely custom made boat. Hull and construction were made as a combination of aramid fibers and mahogany planks and solid. It reached 45 knots at test drive.  

Right after tender boat test drives we started with a new project. So I became a full time employed. New project was a 19m mahogany powerboat with water jet propulsion also. Some parts of superstructure, such as hardtop, and fuel tanks are fully made with carbon fiber technology. Every detail was modeled with Solidworks software and examined with finite element analysis software.  

At the same time I have learned how to make a CNC machine codes for very precise wood cutting/drilling.  

I have a plenty of experience with different kinds of equipment like: Rolls Royce-KaMeWa water jets, MAN engines, Boning control and monitoring system. And some other companies also like: RINa (Italian notification body), High modulus (composite constructions). 

In the meantime I became a chief engineer in our company which has more than 20 employees and keeps on growing. My responsibility is to work on hull design and weight calculations. Also, my duty is to lead a team of three engineers and 15 craftsmen. We are experienced with all stages of design, from a paper sketch to the final product.

I enjoy my work because there are always more challenges with different kinds of problems and solutions. It is really great to work and be a part of company which is quite opened for all kinds of interested and unique projects and gives you an opportunity to learn so many things in a short time period. In the mean time I have continued with PhD studies because one day I would like to become a professor so I can pass all my knowledge to our young colleagues.

“Believe me, my young friend, there is  nothing ­ absolutely nothing ­ half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats” Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Update:  In 2013, Dusan writes:


In past one and a half year I've been holding a position of production manager and Quality control supervisor in Cosmo-Explorer team where we are working on a 50 meter explorer type yacht (more details are enclosed in attached CV, web: www.cosmo-explorer.com ). Apart from my official title of production manager I am also dealing with design and various technical difficulties per daily basis, mostly related to mechanical systems. The yacht class notation is ABS +A1 (E), Commercial Yacht, Ice Class D0, +AMS; MCA LY2 > 500GT; under Cayman islands flag. COSMO 50 is a new building and launching date is scheduled for end of April 2013.