Spring 2009 promises the start of an invasion of Dutch culture to the sixth boro. Who knows . . . we might be renamed New Amsterdam before year’s end, since Wall Street these days needs a face lift. But that’s another story.
When Henry Hudson arrived in the sixth boro in September 1609, he commanded a jacht. Onrust, expected in the boro in September 2009, is also a jacht design. Besides jachts, other Dutch sailing vessels include fluiten, pinasen, galjooten, botters, gundels, hoogaars, skutsjes, punters, schookers, and the list goes on. See some fotos here. The fotos below, compliments of SeaBart, first officer of Smit Kamara, show an annual skutsje sailing event in the Netherlands called Skûtsjesilen. As a child, I imagined these boats part-fish, given the large varnished leeboards that look like fins and hawses like eyes. See really high-resolution fotos here.
More fotos here and here; read the fotos, not the language.
Check out the really exciting racing here in this video complete with the shotgun start. In this video, check out the crashes and fans.
So as the Dutch invasion happens this year with respect to the 400th anniversary of Hudson’s arrival in the boro, imagine skutsje racing in our fair boro had transformation to New York never happened.
Finally, March 25 is the 400th anniversary of Henry’s departure from Amsterdam, headed here by way of northern Norway, Sable Island, and Virginia.
Again, all fotos here compliments of the irreverent Seabart.
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March 15, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Daniel Meeter
Ja, Will, thanks for this. I’ve been on board the Ljouwert (Leeuwarden) skutsje. Three Meeters in these races, distant relatives of mine, Jappie, Pieter, and Lodewijk. The last two are brothers.
Would it be great to see a skutsje on the Hudson.
They were turf boats. Flatbottomed for running canals. The racing began when they were still being used. They would race with their loads of turf to market, because the first one in got the best price. They also carried other cargo as well.