History

History

How did we become sailors?

For me it started when I was 16 with windsurfing on the internal lakes of the Netherlands near Harderwijk. With a home made surf cart behind my bike pendeling the short distance between home and beach. Although I enjoyed the speed and close contact with the water, getting wet and quite often cold was a bit of a drawback. A school camp where we went sailing in those "steel raft" type boats, changed my mind. 

 

Enjoying the sailing above the water level really ignited my interest to look for some small sailboat of my own. Then, often together with family, we enjoyed visiting harbors and looking at those beautiful yachts. But all too expensive for my student budget. Also we spent quite some sunny days relaxing at the water lock between the lakes watching those beautiful yachts go through.

Jouet 670

Then one day my mom called me and told me she had met some yacht owner in the harbor of Harderwijk who wanted to sell his boat. She was thinking to buy it. I couldn't really believe it, surprised to be able to afford such a boat. But then, after a visit and trial run, a few weeks later we were the proud owner of a Jouet 670!  

We enjoyed her very much and made several trips to Monnikendam, Giethoorn, Blokzijn, Enkhuizen and much more.

Kelt 760

After getting married, my brother took care of the Jouet. But after getting two kids, the idea to have a own boat with some more room for the kids formed in my mind. I started looking for boats of about 8 meters and found several ones available in The Netherlands like the Friendship 28 and a Kelt760. The Kelt 760 had my special interest dus to it's size, built-in diesel engine, internal cabin layout and ability to sail it solo.
As one man once said "If it is your boat you will feel it as soon as you step on board.". This was actually what I experienced when I first visited a Kelt 760 end of 2003. This marked the start of search of this type of boat. Early 2004 we finally bought our boat in Hoogmade. We untied the ropes, crossed a lot of bridges and brought her to Zeewolde. Up to today we have fun times sailing, anchoring and visiting the small islands and harbours all around the lakes.