The Builder and Skipper

Senta and me a few hours before the start of a race to Portugal — Two moments at sea: pre-race (1996)
and family sailing in the Aegean (1997).

Sailing with my family in the Aegean Sea in the summer of 1997 — Two moments at sea: pre-race (1996)
and family sailing in the Aegean (1997).

Hello, and thank you for your interest in Fram's website.

Let me briefly introduce myself.

This is me and our lovely Senta in 1996, just a few hours before the start of the 1,200 nm non-stop, double-handed Atlantic race from IJmuiden to Lagos. The other photo shows my wife together with our son and daughter. That picture was taken while sailing somewhere in the Aegean Sea in the summer of 1997.

At the time, we owned a beautiful, classic, and very seaworthy monohull, on which we made many memorable long-distance offshore passages. Meanwhile, my interest in multihulls had already begun to grow into a desire that could no longer be ignored.

‘The desire to build a boat... begins as a little cloud on a serene horizon. It ends by covering the whole sky so that you can think of nothing else.’
— Arthur Ransome

Almost twenty-two years later, with a bouquet of flowers in my hand, I found myself back on the dock of our new home port, just after the successful launch of my self-built F-39 trimaran.

My son sailing the new boat to her home port, where the christening ceremony is performed by my wife and daughter — My son sails the new boat to her home port, where the christening ceremony is performed by my wife and daughter.

I am now retired. Professionally, I worked as a structural engineer and later as a Business Unit Director for a construction company in the Netherlands.

My passion in my free time has always been offshore long-distance sailing.