Handover of the Linssen Grand Sturdy "Sóleyja"

The time had finally arrived. We were about to leave for Maasbracht for the handover of our new Linssen Grand Sturdy 40.0 Sedan. During the production phase, we had been regularly kept up to date on progress with e-mails and pictures, so we couldn’t wait to see her in real life.

Handover of the Sóleyja: 12.3.2021, Friday

As we were up early but not expected at the Linssen boatyard until 10.00 am, we took a long walk through Thorn, the white town, down to the water’s edge. Apparently, the houses were whitewashed to reflect more daylight into their dark rooms. This happened after the occupying French devised a window tax to raise money during the Napoleonic period. The inhabitants quickly reduced the size of their windows and whitewashed their houses in order to pay less tax...

At last, it was time. We turned up at the boatyard’s reception at 10.00 am on the dot, in accordance with their schedule. We were immediately directed to the “Upper Deck”, a terrace in the exhibition hall with a view of all the boats on display. This is where we had signed the contract a year and a half before with clammy hands, looking uncertainly at each other. Are we really doing this now? But at the family council after the return trip to Basel, all the children helped us to make the project a reality, even if it had come as a bit of a surprise.
But first, at the boatyard, there were birthday wishes and a huge cherry bee-sting cake for Monica! Everyone was there: Rennie Hénuy, Fred Spadlo, Yvonne Linssen, Angela van Roy and Paul Smits. After coffee and cake, the big moment finally came: We could go aboard the Sóleyja for the first time. It was an indescribable feeling to finally be allowed on board our boat after about one and a half years’ wait! 

We were met by a pleasant smell of teak. The boat was heated to a comfortable level, which made it really inviting. A bouquet of flowers also decorated the interior. After a short period of genuine admiration on our part, we were given a detailed briefing by Paul, Yvonne’s husband. So much technical and practical information - I was quite overwhelmed at times and hoped Martin understood it better and could follow the thread. He seemed to be following it all well, or at least he pretended to...
Around 2.00 pm we had a sandwich lunch and cake again for dessert, after which the instruction continued. To round off the day, we then went on a small excursion. The yacht was wonderfully easy to steer. Everything was slow and leisurely, even the mooring manoeuvre was relaxed. Rennie kindly helped us to transport all our stuff from the car on to the boat. Everything was still new. It had an enormous amount of storage space, which is why we put off tidying everything away until the next day. Slowly we felt the pent-up tension ease and give way to a feeling of disbelief that the yacht was now a reality.
After this very eventful and quite intense day we went back to the hotel, too tired for a proper dinner

We headed back because at 5.00 pm we were expecting Rennie, Paul and Yvonne Linssen for the final yacht inspection plus drinks. The obligatory champagne, provided by Linssen, was already in the fridge. It was a very pleasant and informal evening and we got the impression that everyone felt relaxed. After the champagne, the beer (“Chopfab”) we brought with us was thoroughly tested. The party broke up only just before curfew time (at the time 9.00 pm), otherwise it could have gone on for ages.
That would have been nice, but we were still overwhelmed by the events of the previous few days and were therefore dead tired. We hoped we could do it another time.
Suddenly Rennie took the floor and handed us a framed picture of the three of us, taken on the day of the handover. He asked us why we were sitting around in the marina and not venturing out. That was the cue! Making a split-second decision, we cast off the lines and sailed around on the gravel pits for a bit of practice. Finding a jetty, we practised mooring manoeuvres on both sides. We got better and better at it and, as dusk slowly fell, we returned to the Linssen marina. The mooring went very well and we were optimistic that we would manage the boat in no time. I made us a meal of Asian chicken with green vegetables.
To get some fresh air, we went back to the Maasplassen lake the next day and anchored off Thorn. The lake is up to 30 metres deep and we looked for a sandbank under water, which would reach up to 8 metres below the surface. From the cockpit (how chic!) I let the anchor rattle down under Monica’s supervision at the bow while gently reversing. After 25 metres of chain it became taut and... we stopped! We enjoyed the first rays of sun at anchor, sitting in the cockpit. It was so peaceful.

Skipper training: 19.3.2021, Friday

At 10.00 am, Jan Linssen, another member of the Linssen clan, was standing by. We departed immediately. He was a little jittery and kept trying to grab the wheel from me. However, he soon realised that I wasn’t a beginner. We quickly approached the first lock (Sluis Linne), which brings the old Maas to a lower level. I called ahead for our Sóleyja on the radio. What a thrill. It’s a huge lock designed for commercial shipping. We got the green light and sailed in immediately. We kept to the side of the helmsman’s position. A siren sounded and the gates closed. In about five minutes, the level in the huge basin fell by about five metres and the downstream gates were opened. We’d got through the first lock. After another lock (this time it took a bit longer for us to enter - maybe I didn’t press the button on the radio correctly and the lock control centre didn’t hear me. Jan tried on his radio and it worked), we turned into the Linne-Buggenum canal from the Maas at Roermond. In front of us and behind us were heavy barges loaded with sand and oil. They were so fast that it was hard for us to keep up the pace. It was a tight fit in the third lock shortly before Maasbracht. The lock keeper counted us in as “number 3”, so we let the sand carrier go ahead.
We waited until both barges had been secured and moored beside them. A friendly conversation was struck up between Jan and the female captain of the sand carrier. On the way out we had to watch out for the huge eddies caused by the barges and only left when they were in the upper lock gate. I accelerated a little too much and an eddy pushed the stern against the wall. But Jan was already on the spot to rectify the situation. I felt like a rookie. So there is something to be learned after all. Despite the slip, Jan seemed to be satisfied with me and said I was calmness personified and that was good.

Warranty inspection: 23.3.2021, Tuesday

After spending a lazy day strolling around Maasbracht the previous day, we headed off to the scheduled warranty inspection. The yacht had no major defects, only very minor cosmetic flaws. We were also having our LTE/WiFi antenna installed in the top spreader of the mast and the router in the electronics box to give us a better chance of good reception in future. We had also decided to have a deck wash pump installed so we could hose down the anchor as soon as we’d retrieved it, as the high freeboard made it difficult to use a water bucket alone. Everything on this boat is a few sizes bigger than on the Luffe...

Apparently there was an owner in the marina who kept a piglet on the ship as a pet, I learned with an old Belgian with a smoky, beery voice during our first quayside chat. He was only a year older than me. According to him, the piglet had long since died and so had the owner, two weeks later. The Russian was probably a Pole and had probably been fishing illegally with nets, he said. I still thought it was creepy.

In the late afternoon, we proceeded to the boatyard marina, where Paul met us at 5.00 pm and patiently went through the “list of defects” with us. I called it a “to-do list” because the defects were really minor, almost insignificant flaws. Afterwards we transferred our sleeping quarters back to the Hotel Crasborn in Thorn where, as returning customers, we were given a wonderful suite room.