By bizn_fun 
The marine industry is intensely regulated but the certification authorities are having to keep pace with innovation.
Both RAW Idea and CEAD are engaging with European regulators almost in real time, as they use new materials and new ideas to produce vessels that cannot be compared to what has come before.
3D printing has often been hailed as a revolutionary technology but hasn’t always delivered on those hopes.
Mr Logtenberg says that’s because the technique is used in multiple different contexts.
“It’s all being seen as one thing, but you have metal printing, you have polymer or large-scale printing, all these different applications.
“There are many applications that didn’t succeed because it was not competitive enough, but there are a few where it actually happened and is being used.”
Additive manufacturing is being used more frequently in the shipping industry, but in technical niches, rather than entire hulls.
How far could 3D printing go in the maritime world? We are a long way from entire ships being printed in one go.
Joyce Pont is sceptical whether that moment will arrive in the foreseeable future – she sees the building of superyachts and other such vessels as a ‘craft’ which will resist automation.
But Mr Logtenberg is more optimistic.
“Building a 12-meter boat, I never expected that a year ago,” he says.
“Traditional shipbuilding is done in modules. It’s going to take maybe a decade or two before we are going to completely print [a ship’s hull], because there will be more need of material research.
“But thermal plastics are being developed and improved all the time. Of course, the machines, everything needs to be scaled up, but why not?”