‘Maybe people don’t want to sail anymore’

13 August 2024

Since corona, sea charter skipper Ton Lemmers (1942) has been seeing fewer and fewer passengers. With his Stella Maris, he is in Amsterdam’s Oude Houthaven waiting for a barrel of rum for Flensburg.

That barrel had been brought in from the Caribbean by the sailing freighter Tres Hombres. Actually, another ship was supposed to bring the rum to Flensburg, but the Tres Hombres was delayed and the other ship couldn’t wait, so Ton is doing it now.

He started his season late this year and hopes to find passengers in the Baltic ports. The cause is a conflist with survey agency Register Holland Zeevaart. ‘Since I rebuilt the ship, relations have been bad. I put a whole new underwater hull under it according to Lloyd’s and they don’t actually want that. It’s a very small world and very personal feuds are being fought. It was about something so futile that, if someone else told me, I would think the ship was rejected for something else. A socket that doesn’t have a cover on it. Or a bulb in the engine room that doesn’t light, which is a matter of screwing in a new bulb. Things like that. I had had the spars inspected last year. Now suddenly the fittings had to come off the gaff. It is riveted, so that took me hours. Even though it had been inspected last year.’

Seaman’s book

Ton had trouble finding a mate this year. ‘Since corona, a lot of people have quit.’ In turn, his mate had trouble getting a seaman’s book. ‘That comes from the Kiwa these days, which is a hopeless organisation. I’ve had a seaman’s book for 60 years and when I had to renew it, it couldn’t be done. You are registered with the Chamber of Commerce under the same code as inland navigation, but with the addition North Sea and Baltic Sea. And they were not smart enough to understand that this was maritime shipping. Took months. And that mate didn’t get a seaman’s book because he had to have a contract. But someone without a seaman’s book has no certificate, so you’re not going to give them a contract. I had offered a one-month contract, but they didn’t think that was enough. In the end, he got a seaman’s book through the Naval College.’

Sell or book

Ton started this season with few bookings, not only because he had to cancel passengers due to the time-consuming hassle of the inspection, but also because the Stella Maris is for sale. ‘I had four reasonably serious buyers. I am at an age where everyone says to me: boy, you should sell it, but when you book, you are not 100% focused on selling. Usually I am very stubborn, but now I listened anyway. Now it’s not sold and hardly booked either.’
Ton bought the 1914-built Stella Maris (32 x 4.68 metres, 158 hp John Deere, 250 square metres of sail area) as a vegetable hunter in 1984 and launched her as a sailing charter vessel. ‘It is 23.28 metres across the waterline. This is very favourable because most rules apply from 24 metres of waterline length. It sails like a yacht and it is the easiest ship in the fleet. A joy to sail.’

Virtual sailing

The Stella Maris has five cabins for 12 passengers and usually makes nine-day trips on the Baltic Sea. ‘My passengers are generally quite old, like me. It went well until corona, but they don’t get the groups together anymore. Maybe people don’t want to sail anymore. It shouldn’t last that long either, there are too many other things. I always say: we should actually sail virtually. Three hours on the Atlantic, until they find it gets a bit cold. Then another hour in the Caribbean and then they’ve seen it again. It used to be a real adventure. You just made a lot of berths in your ship. I have two toilets for the passengers. Now there are ships with a toilet in every cabin. Then I think: to get that luxury out of the hire price, you have to sit on the toilet quite a bit.’

Read this article by Heere Heeresma jr. in the Schuttevaer (for subscribers only).

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