Aqua has a new boat: Brak Mormel !!

On Wednesday the 11th of June 2026 our new boat has made it's first sail on the Rhine! It is now positioned at the waterscouting, from where we can sail on it every Thursday (and more).

On Monday the 16th the Aqua board Doorge(wind)erd and it's candidates for the present board went to Ermelo because they had been offered a free boat. This boat was presented to them as a bm, with a wooden deck and a polyester bottom. We knew it had some damage and expected to be able to sail with this boat for about two or three years before it would become to dangerous. However, when we saw the boat we were very surprised that this boat only needed new varnish and was complete! Seeing this made us decide that we would drive the boat to Wageningen immediately. And there we went, we hook hands with the previous owners, handed over a bottle of wine and drove off to Wageningen. The trailer the boat was on was not in perfect condition though, It was a home made trailer of which we were unsure whether it would be approved by the police, so just to be sure we avoided all highways on the way back and drove very carefully. 

After arriving arriving at the ws after a on and a half our drive (which could have been 30 minutes), we positioned the boat behind the new building and decided to have a good look at it the next day when the sun would provide us with daylight.

And when we did we were surprised to find so much stuff in the boat! Also, after measuring the boat it turned out to be a 16^2 instead of a bm! This only means that the boat is slightly longer and the sail area is bigger, but also that it sails a bit better!

After this thourough inspection of the boat, we started sanding the wood. Some places needed to be sanded back to bare wood, and we even found some small spots of wood rot. however, after we could easily fill most of these spots with epoxy or kit, only one spot needed a new piece of wood, which Niek nicely made for us. Then when all of the sanding was done, we could place the boat in the loods and the varnishing began.

Here we have spend three month varnishing the boat, it was very thirsty for varnish and it took many layer untill we were satisfied by the good layer of varnish. We also sanded the bottom of the boat, as we were able to hoist the boat up for better accesibility. After this hard work we only needed to paint the bottom and then the boat finally be splashed!

We did so on wednessday the 10th of June, by letting it slip in to the water at the boat ramp at Vada, which went relatively smoothly, only Jesse his finger in the winch, which hurt a bit. but after it was in the water, we motored it to the and put the mast on, so we could cover the boat up for the day after.

Then on the association evening organised together with Minoa, we put all of the ropes in it's pace and the sails on the boat. although the rain we even managed to go sailing for the first time on this day! Some Minoans even joined us in this joyfull moment.

From now on, all valkskippers can use this boat to go for a sail whenever they want! The board is working on a manual for the boat specifics, but expect this to be published soon, also the stickers for the name have been ordered and will be put on the boat as soon as possible.