20180624

Raid NL 2018 - the day before

Drove to Aduarderzijl to join Koos, Joost and Mark to start the Raid NL 2018. The Raid NL was thought up by Koos Winnips and Joost Engelen. It is a five-day trip covering about 200 km of scenic waterways in the north of the Netherlands. We will start in Aduarderzijl, a small hamlet north of Groningen and sail along lakes, rivers and canals to the Beulakerwiede near the city of Meppel. Each day we should cover about 40-50 km. At an average speed of 5km this means we should paddle, row or sail upwards of 8 hours per day. We will be using the ANWB water maps A, B, C to navigate our trip. Koos will be using an app to navigate his canoe. It is our intention to sail together if we can.

There are only four of us on this trip. Three sailing canoes and my 15ft sailing pram (Hatseflats).
Koos Winnips is sailing an Artemis sailing Canoe designed by Axel Schmidt and slightly modified by Koos. Leeboard and rudder were taken from racing catamarans. The lug sail was specially made by RSS sails (http://www.reallysimplesails.com).
Joost Engelen is sailing the Viola sailing canoe designed by Michael Storer. It was beautifully built by Joost in his garage. Originally designed for a fathead sail, Joost will be using a lug sail also made by RSS sails.
Mark Whitelock will be sailing a Wenonah Prospector 15 canoe with a lug sail. Mark modified his canoe to take the lug sail and added benches for more comfort. He will be steering with a paddle. At 68, Mark is the nestor of our group.
And finally there is me with Hatseflats, a 15ft self-designed and self-built sailing pram. Powered by a lug sail made by Frank van Zoest (http://www.oraandsail.nl). Because my boat is the biggest it will be used as a freight ship so I will be lugging around the supplies.

It was raining when I arrived at the campsite in Aduarderzijl. Mark had put up his tent and Koos had improvised a tarp. Another tarp was used as a shelter from the rain. Joost arrived with the barbecue after the rain had gone. After a good meal we turned in. I had parked Hatseflats in the grass and put up the cockpit tent for sleeping on board It was hard getting to sleep.