Also from Harlingen in Friesland there is now a helping hand, or rather a pulling rope, towards skipper Ed Reker of the IJM22. Tomorrow, with the help of many others, he will make another attempt to get his stuck cutter away from the Zandvoort beach.
“Are you speaking to Rinus? No, you are speaking to Niels. The company is named after Rinus.” For example, Niels Wienbelt answers the phone when we are in business BijRinus BV call in Harlingen. The company specializes in making strong cables. “We mainly sell them to inland shipping.”
While Niels calls NH, his colleague Jesse is busy making the cable, which will play a leading role tomorrow during, hopefully, the final scene of the Zandvoort cutter drama.
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“Jesse is working on the softshackles, those are the closures. These can soon be attached to the tug or cutter and are also extremely strong. They can pull up to 90 tons,” Niels explains.
Last night there was an emergency call for a special type of rope on the Black Jack’s Facebook page. During Thursday afternoon’s attempt, the cable broke twice. Once, skipper Ed was even hit by a flying piece. That ended relatively well, according to his daughter Lisette.
‘Cable does not swing when broken’
“We saw that message yesterday on Facebook and we sent them a message that we have exactly such a cable here. It is a Dyneema cable, 44 millimeters. It can hang up to 136 tons. The advantage Another thing about this cable is that if it breaks, it will fall dead and not swing,” Niels explains. “It is extremely strong. Stronger than steel wire and also super light.”
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The Frisians know what they are talking about. They do pull free more stuck vessels. “A while ago a cutter near Petten and a stuck pontoon near the Afsluitdijk.”
“People are really surprised at how strong this rope is. Will it definitely work tomorrow? Well, we certainly hope so. When you see what we have pulled loose with our cables so far. Anyway, they are there It’s been going on for three weeks now, right? So we’ll see.”
Cable still in transport
It will take a while before the cable arrives in Zandvoort. “In principle, he can be transported at any time. When Jesse is ready, that is. We do all this selflessly for the skipper, of course. He has no costs for it.” The men themselves, together with their rope, also come to the coast to see the apotheosis with their own eyes.
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