He was actually supposed to release the hawsers from his self-built lemsteraak today and head for the IJsselmeer, but an explosion on board put a stop to that last night. Instead of sailing, Aalsmeer Aldert Been is mainly busy with insurance papers these days. “I’m especially relieved that no one was hurt.”
It is Saturday evening around 7.30 pm when the residents of the Uiterweg are startled by a huge bang. “At first I thought something had fallen above,” says a neighbor of the shipyard. When she goes outside, she sees a fire raging on her neighbor’s round bottom.
While numerous Buurters (residents of the Uiterweg, ed.) come to see what is going on, a neighbor pulls a fire extinguisher out of the cupboard, sprints towards the lemsteraak and makes an attempt to extinguish the flames, the neighbor says.
“It had to do with gas, but all bottles are still intact”
Not much later, the fire brigade is also at the wharf with two vehicles and a boat, and takes over the work of the local residents who are putting out the fire. To prevent new explosions, firefighters remove two gas cylinders from the ship and put them in the water as a precaution.
All bottles intact
From the outside, the damage seems to be not too bad, but that is only apparent, according to the owner. “50,000 euros,” he says somewhat reluctantly. And the question is whether the insurer will cover that. “They are usually good at collecting premiums, but less good at paying out.”
Rumors that a gas bottle has exploded on board, Been refers to the realm of fables. “It had to do with gas, but the bottles are all still intact,” he alludes to a gas leak on the boat.
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“Very sad,” says the neighbor, who emphasizes that her neighbors also regularly choose the open water. “They also sail to Sweden with it.” More than thirty years ago, the family was already a child at home in Scandinavian waters, according to a story that appeared in 1990 in the magazine Spiegel der Zeilvaart.
‘Artist with wood’
In that article Been is called an ‘artist with wood’. Whether the specialist can return to his favorite Scandinavian waters this year remains to be seen. In any case, his knowledge and skills about the construction of lemsteraken will not be the fault: in 1990 he had already restored countless ships and 26 self-built. Look at here an overview of round bottoms built by Been,