Organizer Bert van Baar has been building wooden boats for decades and teaches this to others. He teaches aspiring boat builders on the Willemsoord site and talks enthusiastically about his profession. He has been organizing the Wooden Boat Festival every year since 2019. Dozens of examples of the work of hobby builders can be found on the quay and in a hall that professionals can learn from.
cozy crowds at Wooden Boat Festival 2022 – NH Nieuws
Choirs singing sea shanties at their fullest provide the perfect atmosphere in which lovers of the wooden boat can meet. “You become a bit rare as a builder of wooden boats,” says Bert van Baar, spiritual father of the festival. “And when you find like-minded people at such a festival, that’s just fun to hang out with.”
Exception
All boats are made of wood with the exception of one copy. It is the replica of a seventeenth-century working barge made entirely of waste plastic. The material is so artfully worked that you have to look very closely to see that it is plastic and not wood.
The vessel was submitted by the Clean2anywhere foundation, which is committed to reducing the amount of plastic in surface water. “We have a major problem in the world: plastic litter”, says Edwin ter Velde of Clean2anywhere. “I have to do something with that and the first thing I thought of was making a boat.” The difference with wood is so difficult to see that many viewers do not realize that it is plastic and unsuspectingly ask when Edwin intends to actually build the boat from plastic.
“When I’m working on my boat, I forget I’m blind”
Another striking entry is a little further down the hall and is clearly made of wood. It is striking that the boat is far from finished. It is the wooden ship of the almost blind Paul van Assema, he suffers from a progressive eye disease. Although he can only see one percent with one eye, he has been building his dream by touch for a few years: a wooden ship. “When I’m working on my boat, I forget I’m blind, until I bump my head or can’t find a tool, then I’m reminded of it, but I’m totally absorbed in it one day a week,” she says. Paul.
He hopes to have his ship completed in two years. His progress may be seen next year at the fifth special edition of the Wooden Boat Festival. Next year together with Sail Den Helder from June 29 to July 2.
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