DEKC Maritime
Get In Touch

Profile interview

From Bangkok toGroningen.

Bob Pentermann, Mechanical Engineer

Bob Pentermann was born in Bangkok, grew up in five different countries and has lived at twenty-seven different addresses in his 28 years. He currently works as a mechanical engineer at DEKC, drawing up piping layouts for vessels for two major clients: one in pipelay and the other in offshore.

Words by DEKC editorial

“So many different specialisms under one roof. For such a small company, and in Groningen too, I think that's pretty remarkable.”
Bob Pentermann, Mechanical Engineer

Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands. Bob Pentermann is 28 and grew up in five countries before his family settled here.

"My dad was a general manager at various hotel chains. He liked seeing different things, so we moved around a lot."

Bob at his workstation. The display shows a 3D model of a steel structure.

He lists it all quite matter-of-factly. "I'm 28 now, and I've lived at twenty-seven different addresses, if you count the ships."

Through all those moves, the family remained close. "It's always been the three of us. My dad, my mum and me."

He ended up in the Netherlands at twelve. An international secondary school, which he didn't finish. Then a vocational course in International Business. "That wasn't really my thing either, but I thought: at least I'll have a qualification."

For a while, Bob sailed aboard traditional Dutch sailing vessels, known as the 'brown fleet'. He then lived in Amsterdam, as the caretaker of a hotel boat. Then Covid hit. "I lost my job, but I got a redundancy payout. And that's when I started thinking about going back to school." The only institution willing to take him on straight away was a private one. He used his redundancy money to pay for top-up courses in physics and advanced maths, which would get him onto the course he really wanted to do. "After that, it all just fell into place. I got through the whole degree first time."

His final-year project brought him to DEKC. He stayed on because of the mentoring and support he received, particularly from his manager, Arnoud, and because he was impressed by the breadth of specialist knowledge within the company. If a question goes beyond Arnoud's expertise, for instance, Bob is pointed towards a colleague with the right knowledge. "At one point during my final-year project, I was looking at wave action and how to calculate it, and he would say: go and see Henk, he knows all about that. So many specialisms under one roof."

Piping as a puzzle

Piping in 3D. The routes are planned out on screen first.

Bob focuses on onboard systems, particularly the pipework, or piping. "I work out the routes for the pipes on a ship. Where the pipes and cables can run. What sort of supports they need, what sort of foundations."

His biggest project so far has been for one of the world's largest pipelay vessels. The Double Joint Factory is the onboard factory where sections of pipe are assembled and welded together. "The whole factory, all the piping, the HVAC, the hydraulics, I've drawn every bit of it."

It was a hectic project. At one point, he also became the direct point of contact for the client in Rotterdam. "There were some major problems because there just wasn't enough space. So you work it out together with the client, as a team. Figuring out how to make it all fit, that's the fun part."

He is now working on the handover of his next project: a rock installation vessel for a major offshore client. Rock is placed precisely on the seabed through a moonpool, an opening in the middle of the ship, with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) helping to guide the process. "Not your standard ship. These are specialist ships, and that's what I like."

Lately, he has also been getting more familiar with Cadmatic, the software used to create the drawings. Together with Harm, the office's Cadmatic specialist, he is building up and organising the library, learning how it all fits together so he can take on more of the work himself.

Two screens and a laptop. The steel structure on the left, the piping on the right.
I worked on it for well over a year. When you finally get to walk into that space and see it all in place, that's just a really good feeling.
Bob Pentermann, mechanical engineer

Maasvlakte, Blender, headphones

The pipelay vessel is currently at the Maasvlakte, in the Port of Rotterdam. Bob has made it clear that if anyone from the office needs to visit, he wants to be the one to go. "Saturday, Sunday, doesn't matter. I'll be there." Photos are already coming back from the yard. He has worked hard on it and would love to walk through the space he designed in real life. "Just from a single bend or a tee, I can tell exactly where I am on the ship."

He has seen his drawings turn into steel before. Last summer, he spent ten weeks on the shop floor at the SaS yard in Waterhuizen, where drawings produced at a desk became actual structures.

Outside work, he keeps working in 3D, often in Blender, purely for fun. "You feel a bit more like you're inside the screen, because you can move around in it. It's just a nice way to work." At the office, he prefers to have his headphones on. "That way I can really get absorbed in what's on the screens, with some music on."

His knack for finding solutions extends beyond his work. Bob left home young to go sailing, didn't finish secondary school and still found his way. "I've always had to figure things out as I went." That's why the freedom here suits him: he has his own responsibilities and the space to get on with them.

In a few years, he would like to move into project management. "Being the person who sees the whole picture, knows how everything fits together and keeps things on track. That's what I'm working towards. Maybe in a year or two, though that does feel a bit soon." For now, there are plenty of puzzles still waiting to be solved.

Related

More interviews