Sailing museum piece – De Stentor

The Netherlands has nearly three million water recreationists. On the most diverse boats they seek relaxation. This week: Peter van Latum and sailing family history

His grandfather Peter – he never knew – and his father Evert went for him.. They were before and after the Second World War, skipper on the Mr. P.L.F. Blussé 1909, the ship which Peter van Latum (67) now owns.

The more than 12-meter-long ship, named after a nineteenth-century liberal director “with great services to the provincial water ‘ served as Executive hunt province of South Holland.

the Van Latum youth is intertwined with the ship. In one of the drawers in the hold placed his mother him to sleep as a baby on a Sunday family outing. And as a kid of 11 years he sailed occasionally join the prestigious boat, which figures as Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard took to see for example how the Zeeland Delta Works were progressing.

Golden opportunity
Now Van Latum, retired carpenter and passionate water maker, skipper of his own memories. Because he received and seized the golden opportunity to purchase the ship that is so closely linked to his family.

His wife Marja dared. ,, She said, “I think it’s cool” and that it was “too dog Dinkie barked approvingly three of them now enjoy every summer the Dutch waterways in their sailing museum piece Sometimes just mostly -… Like now – in convoy with their friends Association of Boat Owners Old Glory.

the fleet of prewar notary boats bakdek- and kofferdekkruisers and Maaskruisers momentum this weekend in the waters around Gouda, Woerden and Uithoorn. draws from the banks and the waters of the Rotten the caravan of lovingly maintained boats to the attention of cyclists, rowers, walkers and residents of houseboats.

it is also a spectacle. Close your eyes and you will see the prince consort stand behind the deck, nonchalantly the ash from his cigarette ticking

for years, Van Latum had another, smaller boat ,, we were really crazy, but when we came across this, I said to the owner:… “think of me you take away him. “Three months later he called. No easy decision, major purchase. But friends said such an opportunity you never get more. One Sunday morning we made the decision. The salesman who had always been very careful with his possessions, was overjoyed that the ship had a story in which we applied. “And Van Latums fit in turn good for those who love Old Glory, so the picture exactly right.

Ambachtsschool
it remains particularly:. a carpenter who buys the ship on which his father and grandfather have worked ,, you find that so that it can be done, says something about life. I am the youngest of our family and just went to the technical school. the idea that I could follow my father, did not exist. I wanted to be a carpenter. If my grandfather had known this …. I often look up, especially when I’m alone and then I think. “look, here I am, the same place where stood my father and grandfather” Yeah, I shoot as full of “

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