According to Rispens, a lot has changed in those almost forty years. “When I started, the ships were much smaller. People now have more luxurious yachts. Back then we had four or five boats in the lock at the same time, now often only one fits.”
A lot has also changed due to automation, Rispens explains. “We now have three control posts in Drenthe, where we operate routes remotely.” And so Rispens no longer has to go through the entire province every day to open bridges and locks.
Except for the locks of the Drentsche Hoofdvaart, they all still have to be opened and closed by hand. The Drentsche Hoofdvaart is an old shipping connection between Meppel and Assen. In 1780, the last stretch of the canal as far as Assen was completed. The sailing route is approximately 47 kilometers long and has six locks.
“The canal was dug for commercial shipping,” says Rispens. “The peat, peat canal, was the most important thing, but potatoes, beets and passengers were also transported.” That changed in the late 1970s. The ships became larger and could no longer pass through the lock. For example, the Dievers lock is six meters wide, 27 meters long and a boat may be one and a half meters deep to sail through the lock. “Professional shipping had too few opportunities here,” says Rispens. “Then recreational boating came on.”
According to Rispens, Diever is the center of the Drentsche Hoofdvaart. “There is most to do here. You have the Dwingelderveld and the Drents-Friese Wold is behind it. People often cycle from here. When I started working here, the marina was not there yet, people now have it a shower, electricity and internet.”
From October the season for Rispens will be over. Then a skipper can only sail through the lock by appointment. When everyone has been on holiday, Rispens will leave himself. But not by boat. “I can’t see a boat for a while,” he says with a grin. “I think I’ll go to a holiday home somewhere in the Netherlands.”