While crews from other boats were scurrying around the docks this morning preparing for day 1 BVI Spring Regatta, a group of gentlemen were calmly enjoying a delightful European style breakfast on the aft deck of their Moorings 48 charter Marty J, in no apparent hurry whatsoever!
Team Ferry Tale is a group of friends from near the Hague in Holland who sail together on the Ijsselmeer, a manmade lake in the North Sea, and proud to be racing BVI Spring Regatta for the 14th time, in the bareboat class on a Moorings 46. Willem Klomp, team skipper, and his friends are long-time sailors who have spent many years sailing the International Dragon class all over Europe – the Mediterranean, Belgium, the North Sea and in Holland. Now they mostly spend time on motorboats, Klomp smiled, alhough crew member Koos de Blecourt still sails the classical Dutch sailing boat known as the Lemsteraak.
““I crew on a wooden Lemsteraak that was built in 1895 – 127 years old,” Blecourt said. “It’s not comparable to anything you may know – it’s 35’ and side boards instead of a centre board and has a flat hull so you can sail in very shallow waters. We sail it on a lake – we have lots of lakes, especially in the northern part of Holland.”
But no matter how many lakes and waterways the Dutch may have, they can really only sail in the summer as It’s just too darn cold and frozen otherwise.
“I think it’s good to have a few months of rest and no sailing,” Klomp, team skipper, contemplated. “We start again and everything is new again after the winter.”
Which is why the Dutch like to charter in the BVI, during their winter months, and typically Spring Regatta hosts a large number of Dutch teams.
“We really like this regatta, and we like sailing the charter boats as we’re sailing against like boats but most of the other boats in the bareboat fleet are sailing very well this week, we are seeing it at the starts,” Klomp smiled.
Team Ferry Tale are hoping that more Dutch teams return to BVI Spring Regatta for 2024! – Michelle Slade
