The Batavia

The replica of the ‘Batavia’ in full sail

Rigging Detail

The above are all parts of the rigging of the ‘Batavia’ which had to be replaced to make it safe to actually sail with in Australia, during the Olympic Games in 2000. The crow’s nests in the last two pictures are before and after, the left being the old one and the right the one I build. All of these items are build by myself, it was one big project that was allocated to me.

Me working on the end of the jib-tree

Me fininishing off the last bits

As you can see on these photo’s, the Batavia Yard was very exposed to the weather, on the shore of lake IJselmeer, the former Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). We worked in all weather, and all seasons, although in some winters we had leave because it was too cold/icey to work, and in summer we had time off on the hottest days.

Me on my finished work. I also worked on the jib-tree itself with a whole team of others. The jib-tree was build out of different segments of wood glued together to make it strong enough for sailing.