Oh dear…
I am very very sorry to have to say that Sus and I have pulled out of the purchase of De Verwachting. And if, Dominic or Gilly, you ever read these, please accept our sincere apologies, it was nothing personal at all.
So what happened. Well the survey happened, finally! I had managed to engage a brilliant surveyor – he specialised in Dutch Sailing Barges – he owns a Klipper, his name is Stafan Fritz and there is nothing he doesn’t know about them and what it takes to do one up. Anyway Stefan came down on two separate occasions and then produced the written survey – the first for the vessel including her condition, her hull and systems, and the second for the rig.
Basically she failed. Won’t go into technicalities but the hull alone – well, we would have to set aside 40k to restore the hull given that we hadn’t seen the extent of all the work needed on it. Then there were the systems. Every single one had something wrong about it and it would have cost quite a bit to have to put all of these into order. The battery bank was condemned as dangerous so new set of batteries plus the fabrication of a new place to site them and the cabling etc… The rig had quite a bit of work to do n it as well…
it just went on and on. We could have made a derisory offer for her, but I thought that would be insulting and we thought better to let them sell it to someone who was just going to use her as a liveaboard – they would be bound to get more for her. OR they need to find someone who could see the potential but who had deeper pockets than us.
Its such a shame as she is such a pretty Klipperaak and I was dying to get her sailing and cruising again. What a brilliant way to see Europe. So anyone out there fancy going half’s on the costs and ownership – this this your chance to own-a-ship!
Once again – sorry Dominic, Sorry Gilly. So near yet so far…
Just going to leave you with a couple of bits of video of our passage up Southampton water…
Ok – a little left field, but bear with me…
So Sus and I are selling Hatherley Road. We are moving down to a lovely little (Emphasise ‘little’) terraced house in Hamble – you’ll have to look on your map , buts its down on the south coast close to Southampton and its a yachting Mecca. We are also hoping to buy a Dutch Sailing Barge – a Klipperaak to be exact, called De Verwachting (The Expectation) which just happens to be down there – the Hamble – sitting on the beautiful salt marshes half way up the river.
De Verwachting
As a sensible plan it doesn’t hold a awful lot of water – but then you only live your life once so might as well push the boat out and do something out of the ordinary.
But before we go ahead with this, I thought it would be a clever idea to go find out – from the Dutch – about these beautiful barges and how they sail and handle.
Last weekend we flew to Amsterdam and joined “Avontuur” – means Adventure in Dutch. Avontuur is a Klipper or 26m LOA with a beam of about 5.8m. She takes up to 24 persons – something like that. Last weekend we raced her against a handful of other Klippers and Tjalks (pronounced ‘chal – lucks’. Hard ‘c’s)
Avontuur
A handful of us motored her out through Amsterdam on Thursday night to a little refuge haven half way up the Markermeer. God it was cold and we didn’t berth till about 01:00 in the morning.
Following morning we motored (no wind) north through the locks at Ledystad, pass the replica of the Batarvia, pass the power station, loads of windmills and under the bridge at ****. Crossed the Ketalmeer and docked at Kampen.
Kampen is rather pretty. It’s quayside is crammed with sailing barges! It’s centre; consisting of a main street, a canal, loads of side streets and the old orginal gate houses, is quiet and pretty and has a smattering of the ‘dark’ about it. Sort of Brother Grimm if you know what I mean. I liked it and would like to go back.
Tjalk racing
Saturday and Sunday we raced around this island in the middle of the Ketalmeer. We won – everything – even the best “man overboard manikin’ I kid you not!
The Avontuur MOB Manikin
I loved it. Actually think Susie sort of did although she needed to be more active and it was quite hard work as the ‘schip’ was run in Dutch, so all was Ortop, Halfwinder, Kluiver, Marie, Dirk and Fok. A couple of times I had to put the ‘Fok up’….?
All Dutch to me... The Starboard mast winch!
But the crew were lovely and we spent a lot of the time comparing notes on sialing tems in Dutch with the equivilent in English. It was an education.
Made a number of new firends:
Marleen and Tom – owners of Avontuur, were the perfect hosts. Tom – thank you for letting me drive!
Heno – Bosun and a complete character. Would sail with him anywhere. (not in the pictures)
Johan – the Sailing Master (left). had worked Avontuur for 20 years, had perfect teeth, a voice that would slice a force 9 and was a complete gentleman.
Tup – Johan’s Brother (right). It sort of ran in the family…
Yalonda – fellow shipmate (not in pictures)
Tommy – who I thought was shy to begin with but then we ended up chatting for 2 days non stop.(not in the pictures)
Eelkelien and Mara – Galley rats – but very good. Beer on tap, a pot of lovely coffee forever available – and I loved the breakfasts!
So to all thank you. One day hopefully they will all come over and sail DV – or we’ll take her to Holland!
Bon Voyage!
Venue: Auditorium, ICC, London’s Dockland
Audience: 4,500 IT developers and Pros
Dates: 2/3 Feb 2011.
Production Agency: George P Johnson
So this was the first time I had ever been asked to work with George P Johnson. They were a very nice bunch and it was a very pleasant experience. They asked me to produce the keynotes as the lady hat had produced it the two previous years was stacked. So came in – also the last in the team to join. Worked on the set design and then came up with the creative based on the brief from the client. I loved it… Client asked for a distinctive London feel. She want us to touch on the history, the docks and River Thames. There had to be mention of the Olympics and there was mention of all the great entertainment that could be found in the West End.
Simple… Used the monies set aside for an opening video to pay for the kids from the cast of Oliver! to open the show with “Consider Yourself”
The main host then had the guts to come on as a “Nancy” and join the Artful Dodger for the finale before quick changing from Moll to VP!
The walk in is also worth mentioning – looked beautiful – huge canvas of the sights and sounds of London set to a jukebox of “Summer” themes – well it was miserable outside!
We had Roger Black on stage along with Richard Curtis talking about Comic Relief and on the last day we ran the guest keynote with Dr. Robert Ballard. Second time we had worked together and he was great.
Loved working with John and Chris. Sharon, Jan, Robert H, Mike in software and then on the days themselves Diana, Shortly/Ollie and Paul plus all at CT!
If you are interested in seeing more of the whole event then click here – Cisco Live