20241110

Traditionele Schepenbeurs 8-10 November 2024

This meeting of traditional boat owners is held each november in the former naval base 'Willemsoord' in Den Helder. Sailmaker Frank van Zoest asked his friends at Natuurlijk Varen to display their home-built boats during the boat show. So early on Friday morning I went off to Den Helder and put Hatseflats on display in the town hall.
Frank's Wadden Yawl was already on display when I arrived. Lieuwe wheeled in his new boat while I was setting up Hatseflats. 'Flerk Twa' is slightly bigger Wadden Yawl on which it is based. It measures 600 x 180 cm to support a radical 17m2 wing rig. It looks quite a big boat to row. The innovative rig resembles a Ljungstrom rig and folds open to a whopping 34m2 when sailing goose-winged downwind. It will be very interesting to see it sailing when the boat is finished.
On Saturday afternoon, Frank van Zoest was interviewed in the movie theatre about his past career as a sailmaker. During the interview a new film was shown which was shot at a meeting for raid boats with Frank's sails. Many friends of Natuurlijk Varen attended the show and joined in the discussion about sail and oars boats. Now that Frank has retired, Marten-Jan Giesing will be the go-to sailmaker for lug sails in the Netherlands.
During the weekend about 700 visitors came to the raid boats exhibited in the town hall. We had hoped for more, but the town hall was out of sight from the main event and not easy to find.
Many sailors of Natuurlijk Varen came to the show, which made it more like a meeting of old friends. Hopefully next year we will attract more visitors with better signposting by the organizers.