Category: Yachts and Yachting

Cruise Europe in a Qrooz (Dutch Design 45)

qrooz-3
Qrooz 01 against the background of Dutch architect Ben van Berkel’s Rotterdam “Swan Bridge”.

In my youth I have extensively traveled the many canals, rivers and lakes of The Netherlands with a 1890 built barge that my dad had converted in a moving house boat in 1960. Many people did that in the 50ies and 60ies with barges that were put out of commission and were not scrapped by generous scrapping subsidies, because road traffic became more fashionable in those years than transport over water. As a student we even hauled motor yachts from the Mediterranean through France and Germany to The Netherlands. I say a moving house boat, because it it moved more like a crab than it sailed. Comfort was Spartan. Only cold water and no shower. In the first years even no heating. But we had a lot of fun wit it. I learned from it that The Netherlands can be best viewed from its waters.

Vrouw-Holle

In 2001 we sold the barge, named Vrouw Holle, to an Englishman who after an extensive renovation is now underway with it somewhere in Europe.

Haagsch-Schuim

Later on with friends and with my current small fast motorboat Haagsch Schuim I have traveled much longer distances.

I must admit I sometimes do envy the current owner of Vrouw Holle and dream of having my own sailing house again. Never necessary to be in one place for long. Always possible to adapt your neighborhood to your mood. Do you want to be fashionable? Moor in Amsterdam, London, Paris or in Berlin all cities that are navigable. Do you want peacel? Seek a mooring place somewhere in a remote place like one of Finland’s 1000 lakes. Much more freedom on the water than when camping on land. And rather than carrying around all sort of stuff to your second home, caravan or yacht, you have your home with you: Ideal!

The same dream did 5 Dutchman*) set out to develop the Qrooz which is a combination of a house a boat and a lounge.

qrooz 2
One of the 5: Dutch industrial designer Huibert Groenendijk who also designed the Roterdam watertaxi:

Groenendijk-4tek

Although he probably wants to forget about it, Huibert also designed a motor yacht version of the Rotterdam Watertaxi:

V-Tesse

The V Tesse or the Blu V-Tesse that sadly disappeared from the market.

Qrooz-1

Back to the Qrooz, a design that seems to work as 2 Qroozes have been launched till today and number one has cruised the European waters extensively already.

It has an enormous living space. It comes in Mini, Large and XL sizes and the prices range from Euro 464,000.- onward. (yes you probably have to sell your house to afford it:-)

*) The 5 are:
Arno Schuurs: Initiative
Huibert Groenendijk: Initial design
Peter Bosgraaf: Naval Design
Casper Helldorfer: Building
Sander Doves: Partner

Photo Plugin Galore: First Try – Two 12 ft Dinghies in Love

The new WordPress 2.7 version makes it much easier to find Plugins. I had a project on my back burner for which I need a decent Photo or Gallery Plugin.

I have shown already some interest here for Yachts and Yachting. I have not divulged yet that I used to be an avid dinghy sailor and used to race dinghies as well. Alas ever since I ventured into our Hotel business, my own clinker built 12 foot Dinghy dating back from 1944, is stored safely without much attention lately. I’m even not sure my old stiff legs will be able to endure a regatta anymore.

On the original date of this post I used a plugin, Tylr Slidr enabling me to show you a couple of photos that I uploaded recently, but took in 2005 in Venice during the Biennial of 2005. There I found two Italian 12 ft Dinghies in the Arsenal. They were berthed opposite each other and were giving each other signs with lamps. It was an Art installation. A sort of act of love. Very poetic and I would never have thought of such use of two old dinghies in a basin that was used for maintenance of submarines.

The Artist, Laura Belem, born in 1974 in Bele Horizonte and working there, was able to make this installation with the help of a stipend from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil.

The 12ft Dinghy is a typical One Design Class. It was designed in 1913 by George Cockshott, an amateur boat designer from Southport, Lancashire, who won a competition organized by the Boat Racing Association (BRA). The BRA wanted a new sailing dinghy that would also serve as a yacht tender, and Cockshott’s design with its single, high-peaked lugsail fitted the bill.

It became an IYRU Dutch Class in 1914 and an International Class in 1920. It was even used for sailing competitions in the Olympic Games of Antwerp of 1920 and of Amsterdam of 1928. In 1920 they sailed on the North Sea with a lot of wind. The gold medal was won by the Dutch brothers Jan Hin and Frans Hin. In the 60ies I had the honor to sail against Jan Frans Hin – well, competing …. actually it was more of looking to his backside:-) The Silver medals were also won by two Dutchman (Van der Biesen and Beukers). In Amsterdam in 1928, on an inland lake near Amsterdam with not much wind, the medal winners were all of Scandinavian origin: 1)The Swede Sven Thorel, 2) Norwegian Henrik Robert and 3) The Fin B. Broman.

Recently we saw the International 12 ft Dingy class association being incorporated.
There are still several fleets:

  • In The Netherlands there is a fleet of over 200 active enthusiasts,
  • North Germany has fleets mainly around Lubeck and Hamburg,
  • Italy has several fleets and is very active,
  • To my knowledge there are also fleets in the UK, Japan, Switzerland and Turkey.

Dutch compete in Italy and in Germany. Japanese and Italians come to The Netherlands for a race sometimes. The class becomes more and more international nowadays, 95 years after it’s creation. Amazing huh?

I found a PDF file with 2007 draft Class rules in English at the site of an Italian Fleet.

This exercise in nostalgia was just to test this plugin and it seems to be what I needed for this post, although the loading of the whole seems a bit slow. What would you think? [Added: And sadly it didn’t work out as anticipated]

Added January 5, 2008: The next Slideshow of the same photos is as per the advice of Heather from Heather on her Travels and used by her at a slideshow of the Turtle Fountain in Rome. It loaded a lot easier, and was also very easy to copy and paste into your blog, but has not the full screen view mode as the other plugin….Thanks Heather! [Update: Unfortunately Slideshow has closed down]

Added July 14, 2009
Oops When I reviewed this article there appeared some hiccups and parts of the post including the two slide shows simply disappeared completely. Grrr recovering it from previous revisions must be done piece by piece as apparently a later update of WordPress (or the theme) seems to garble text into executable code…. done…it was the link to the Swiss fleet that did it!. Those Swiss:-)

Added November 9, 2009
Since this post I’ve had to delete the plugin. We now are waiting for the 2.9 version of WordPress, wich has been promised will handle media much better than it does prsently.

Added March 11, 2012
It appears Slideshow has closed its doors permanently as of March 6, 2012. Revisiting the site of Heather learned me she has now incorporated a Google + thingy…I’ll put this on the back burner for a while to look into it further.

Looking Back to 2008 (2): World News

I found it tremendously good news that with their second attempt Earthrace succeeded to circumnavigate the world with bio fuel in a record time. See their Blog for the day to day coverage of this adventure.

As I said in my prior post I’ll try to be as concise as possible when pondering 2008 and will be spilling my thoughts over several posts.

I enjoyed the year tremendously, despite the economic crisis.

Three most important worldnews Items of 2008 to my view:
I tend to stay away from most of the news. That may change in the near future, as (according to Alltop) I’m now a respected news source for The Netherlands.

  1. A new President for the USA
    I believe Mr. Obama will put the USA again on the map where it belongs: A Super decent Super Power as a role model. His choice of ministers gives a strong impression of his will to bridge differences rather than to enhance them. This maybe wishful thinking from a guy who grew up in the “Polders” (i.e. reclaimed land) with our famous “Polder Model” (i.e. endlessly discussing the differences until almost everybody agrees to a solution).
  2. The Olympics in China
    The Olympics did a tremendous job for China to make it more visible in the world as it should be. I particularly liked the impressive and impeccable organization of the spectacle including rockets to keep the rain away in stead of the students. I love the new Herzog Meuron “Knotted Olympic Stadium” I have a feeling the authorities have become a little more relaxed about freedom of speech partly because of the protests by the athletes and the press. I was proud to see my own small country The Netherlands ending relatively high in the medal count.
  3. The bankruptcy of the financial institutions
    I have always learned from my forebears that you shouldn’t trust bankers, although they are usually immaculately dressed. Almost all have proved a tremendous lack of due diligence. The bailing out of the financial institutions may be wise to prevent 1929/30 alike situations, but I have a strong feeling we have to get rid of all bankers. Kick all incompetent dummies out. Let’s start fresh from zero, scratch, zilch. Let banks be led by sensible diligent housewives who know how to flip a dime three times before spending it and who I trust not to spend anything on derivative nonsense. I’m not even talking about the hedge fund managers and the like: Back in the 60ies to 80ies we used to call them corporate raiders. In fact they are mere buccaneers or even thugs. Although I strongly disagree with the ideas behind Guantanamo Bay, I believe that’s a place they belong while their fortunes should be confiscated and used to curb the losses in bailing out the economy. I’m not a communist and neither a socialists, but the lesson of 2008 is that most financial guys have crossed the line and we (and particularly our “leaders”) all stood there and let them do it. I hope 2009 will be give us much more of “Back to Basics”. Let’s throw the greed out of the window!

What is your view?

Porsche to Design New Luxury Yachts – Luxist

Porsche Design is teaming up with Singapore-based yacht concern Royal Falcon Fleet on a new line of luxury catamarans and megayachts. The companies’ initial collaborative project will be a high-tech 135-ft. motor catamaran, dubbed the RFF135 (above), to be sold under the Royal Falcon Fleet brand. Porsche Design will design both the exterior hull and the interior of the megayacht, which is expected to do 35 knots and retail in the millions. Royal Falcon Fleet, which dubs its craft “the ultimate in billionaire boys’ toys,” has engaged cutting edge Swedish-based marine engineering firm Kockums and Australian catamaran builder Incat Crowther for the project’s naval architecture needs. No word yet on a completion date.

Porsche to Design New Luxury Yachts – Luxist

Philippe Starck models Superyacht "A" after a Destroyer

A by Blohm Voss

Apparently super yacht A, named after current billionaire owner Andrey Melnichenko’s wife Alexandra, has been delivered: According to a Times Online article, it sneaked to Norway to take three Monet Paintings on board as extravaganza decorations reportedly to avoid some taxes, but I suspect also to avoid some legislation that prohibits export of art.

A Moored in Norway

The Internet works very fast because here you see a photo posted by a Norwegian as a comment to the Times article to prove A actually was in Norway. Note its razor sharp bow.

A super yackt

At first glance I thought it was a big white submarine.

Philippe Starck Design for A

Philippe Starck conceived the yacht in 2003.

Zumwalt Class

However, more than with a submarine there are similarities in design, especially en profile, with the Zumwalt Class Destroyer. The US Navy is developing this new destroyer class for delivery in 2013. It is named after US Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr..

A on a maiden Trip

Here it is at a sea trial

Some YouTube footage from a sea trial.

Modeling super yachts after commercial vessels was already a trend in super yacht design, but now it becomes more and more apparent that modeling your super yacht after men of war is the new trend in Yacht Design.

I wonder what kind of weaponry the owner has installed in order to fence off pirates and art robbers….
via Monaco Eye