Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The Dutch Skûtsje

Skûtsje are a version of the traditional Dutch working scows that are now raced for fun (though I think a large portion of the video below is discussing what happens to the fun part of a traditional class when the racing becomes very competitive - note the PT training in the video). These are big boats, upwards of 20 meters, but narrow to fit the canals. They are unballasted, with two leeboards, and they do capsize, with some regularity, when pushed too hard.

Click here for the Wikipedia entry on the Skûtsje.

Warning: The following video is for sailing geeks like me, who would watch an excellent 1/2 hour documentary in another language, just to marvel at the shots of these work boats racing under sail. I wonder if we will ever see a version with English sub-titles?

I've dragged over some comments from Rik who sheds some more light on the following video:
"Even if you knew Dutch you would still miss more than half of the video. They speak Fries which is spoken in Friesland. My Grandmom came from there...The story is about the sometimes opposing issues related to traditional skutse sailing versus bringing the boats and crew to a much higher competitive plane.




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4 comments:

  1. RikJuly 27, 2014 at 4:46 AM

    Thanks for this post. I love these boats.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TweezermanJuly 27, 2014 at 5:39 AM

    Thanks Rik. Wish I knew some Dutch so I could get a better feel of the history behind racing these working scows. Here in the Mid Atlantic U.S.A. we have our traditional race boats, the log canoes with planks.

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  3. RikJuly 27, 2014 at 7:38 PM

    Those look like very fast yawls... Very simple replacement for trapezes.
    Even if you knew Dutch you would still miss more than half of the video. They speak Fries which is spoken in Friesland. My Grandmom came from there. I do not speak any Fries but the looks of this video makes the seawater in my veins move faster.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RikJuly 27, 2014 at 7:40 PM

    The story is about the sometimes opposing issues related to traditional skutse sailing versus bringing the boats and crew to a much higher competitive plane.

    ReplyDelete