Dick Dekker too become a promising man of action. Before the turn of the centenary he put up his patterns in a corner of a coalshed and as the years went on it became an impressive big white ship that he has already tested an which is now waiting in the harbour for further improvement. I´m curiously searching for Dick, the builder of this ship, that reminds me to the arc of Noah because of its size. On my question if he is preparing for a new Deluge caused by global warming he laughs like a young boy, but declares that this is not an arc but a sailship. A friendly fourty-yearold who has his home on this ship together with his daughter Laura and their dog Spot. His motivations to work on this is come from himself and have been decisive for his life since he was a little kid.
When he was a young boy he preferred being outside and occupying himself with boats for discovering the world by sailing. He built around a dozen boats. He is willingly answering my questions in a modest way that does not meet his extraordinary creation. "Havör" is the norwegian word for sea eagle and it was designed an drew by Dick from a model of a norwegian trawler. He saw a boat of this type in a harbour during his circumnavigation with his family, also with a selfbuild sailboat. Not caring much about the boats size and the room that it would offer he became that impressed by the sailing qualities of this boat that he decided to build one like this. Inside there is a little scaled model where you can see two masts with a length of 21 and 18 meters that will be installed later.
What´s the motivation for all this? With his parents, "passionated watersportsmen" that sailed a lot with Dick and his younger sister on the sea nearby Rotterdam, he learned to sail. Different from kids of the same age he continued to work with sailboats. In the region of Woerden to where they moved in between he asked all their neighbours if he could build a boat on their ground. He shows photos of a [overnaadse] boat in a ditch, paying much attention on the woodwork like the visible front sides of the wood that "should have been made different". He earned the money for the material by delivering newspapers. At an age of 12 he sailed alone on the north sea near Ijmuiden on a boat that he refitted. His parents were in sorrow about this, tried to hold him back, which caused him to ran away from home at the age of 14. Later, when his family realized his capabilities on boats, he was acknowledged.
After finishing school he went for theoretical and practical education to the school for inland navigation for 4 years and thereafter he was seaman on the "Vigilia". Exept the captain he was the only crewmember and he was Jack-of-all-trades for loading, unloading and everything from cooking to repairing the engine. After 2 1/2 year he had enough because he could only live his passion at the rare free weekends. In 1985 19 year old Dick started to build a new boat, the "Diario", in an empty greenhouse. He declares that a ship of limited size that is designed for the sea has to be a sailship. I see photos of a big grinding wheel inside a self constructed machine that is driven by a washing-machine´s motor. Within a few month he builds a beautiful shaped sailing yacht that was rolled out of the greenhouse on its side, "a question of meters". Dick wants to make each single part by himself, it gives him faith to it, working it out exactly, fitting in each part and knowing what it can take. "Diario" is Portuguese and means diary, and Dick wanted to fill this "diary" with daily life and journeys.
Together with his German wife he started a 7 year lasting world-circumnavigation. During this journey their two daughters, Laura and Kim, were born. Thick photo-albums contain pictures of sights of South-America, Australia and Asia. There are also the classic pictures of the falmily with their upgrowing children but in exotic and idyllic places. "That was a phantastic time" Dick declares frankly. But there were also dangerous adventures, a hurricane near the Fiji-islands, causing three knockdowns of the ship, the only time that Dick was in doubt that the ship will be able to take it. Hanging in a crane upside down in New-Zealand causing them to stay one year longer for the repairing, they got all support from the authorities and they wanted to stay there forever. From Indonesia they had to escape from breathtaking smoke caused by huge woodfires. While his wife was back in the Netherlands with their kids Dick sailed within three month alone to the Netherlands.
In 1998 they settled down in Lelystad. Dick founded a workshop causing a lot of work and delivered a lot of money and he began to make plans to build the "Havör" that would offer enough room to live there with the family. With help from Jan de Rooy of the AWA-store he found a perfect place at Dick Quaadgras. Living in the polder, much work, caring for the children, the temptations and stress from the welfare state was a great contrast to living together on a boat, go wherever you want and solve all problems by your own. The marriage couldn´t take it.
The house and the "Diario" were sold. Kim went with her mother, Laura wanted to live with her father, first in a caravan near the boat during its construction and now on it. Laura, 11 years old, frail, blond, brown eyed, comes home with a bag of bisquits ["oliebollen", Nederland speciality] from the kiosk that she rode by on the way home from school, "I could not resist" she says. I already saw her joining a sailing course and winning a "Mirror" competition at Rijn en Lek. The cups in her room tell from this, it is a comfortable girls-room, pieces of handicraftwork, drawings and piles of youth books about the "Kameleon" and "Suskes en Wiskes". There is also a one-wheel-bike that Laura rides while showing some tricks. Laura likes challenges and is often on the water, even at rough weather, earlier in a "Mirror" with orange sails, and since last autumn in a "Hurley" with Spot as a permanent ship´s mate in a life-vest on deck. Sometimes she sails with friends swinging to loud music. The "Hurley Tycho" is a fast cabin sailboat, first I thought that the "real" skipper was sitting warm and dry in the cabin. But she sailed alone with Spot. She is really unique, she is following her fathers footsteps. 12 years ago Laura was born in New-Zealand when her parents were at Whangary harbour with the "Diario". She is now in the final year at the basic school and knows exactly that like in her childhood her future should be sailing with boats.
How to go on? Dick sees himself as a transient. The authorities make it very difficult to live permanently on a boat in the dead arm [of the Rijn]. He is working now half days at the boatbulding shop at the "Steenfabriek [de Lunenburg]" and guesses that he will need five years to finish the "Harvör". The most spectacular moment will be the set up of the two masts. Then there will be sailing tests. Just imagine it as a stage for the shantychoir or with the members of "Rijn en Lek" as crewmember. Again there will be cranes necessary for its way to the sea. Then he will make his plans according to the wishes and needs of Laura, who is having it at its best here. For Dick still the ship and the sea is his home. Safe and sound journey and a happy homecoming.

Source: http://rijnenlek.nl/