Customers Romke and Trienke van der Spoel
Romke van der Spoel became acquainted with Boarnstream at the Hiswa in Amsterdam in 2017. ‘At that time we were sailing in a launch, a Makma Carribean. We were not really looking for something else, but our eye fell on a Marex. Really a beautiful yacht and on the stand of Boarnstream I saw one. There I also got to know the people of Boarnstream and was invited to have an orientation meeting in Jirnsum after the Hiswa. There soon came the question that has stayed with me ever since: ‘What kind of yachtsmen are you? Do you want to sail fast or are you mainly looking for stability?’ We want a stable ship with which we can sail comfortably. So we moved away from the Marex (polyester) and ended up with a Boarncruiser 1280 Elegance (steel), a boat that completely satisfies our needs.’
Romke sold his company a little later, but still remained active in the business, and at home they decided to take another boat one more time. ‘That became a Boarncruiser 46 Traveller, a great yacht.
In Friesland, the reeds are pretty high, but on the flydeck you look over everything. We really thought this would be our last boat, but now that I am getting more and more free time and we want to spend longer periods on board, the Boarncruiser 50 Traveller Center Sleeper with larger flydeck exerted an irresistible attraction on us. We were wedded to the 46, but the 50-footer is more spacious and we can take it a little further afield, such as to Norway, Sweden and the Baltic. In October 2021, we commissioned the build. We were not the only ones who wanted a new yacht, because we could only sail with it from 2023.
They would continue to use the Traveller 46 until then, even though Boarnstream’s yacht brokerage already offered the yacht. ‘By Easter 2022, the yacht had been sold. We rented a boat as a replacement and still got away nicely.’ Romke was closely involved in the construction. As a Frisian, he followed the progress on a weekly basis. ‘I regularly checked to see how it was progressing and was kept informed by Wies and Tjerk through photos and film. Everything was done in Friesland and I love that craftsmen in the neighbourhood make a wonderful product together. Short chains of businesses who speak each other’s language.’ A wait of a year and a half seems long, but Romke is not bothered by that. ‘I was given time now to think things out, which I still didn’t know exactly how I wanted them.
I wanted to have radar, antennas and other feelers for communications on a radar bracket. Together with the shipyard, we developed a bracket that is practical and that I also like. I enjoy such a process and also the atmosphere at the shipyard. The people are friendly, open and honest.
The customer is really central, that’s how I experience it. Wies and Tjerk were also comfortable saying to me ‘don’t do it’ if necessary. I appreciate that honesty and in the meantime I was already dreaming of distant voyages with our spacious round bilge with only 1.25 meters draft, two engines and two stabilizers.
