History

Wouter van Dusseldorp

The newsletters and websites Zeepost, Scheepspost and Zeilpost are an initiative of Wouter van Dusseldorp. For over 21 years, he was the creator, publisher, sole editor and webmaster. On 28 July 2023, he passed away completely unexpectedly, at the age of only 67.

Originally a biologist, Wouter turned his sailing hobby into his work at a young age: for 35 years, he worked as a skipper/entrepreneur in charter shipping. The last 25 years, until 2021, with the historical barge (type: ‘stevenaak’) Egberdina that was build 1882.

In 2002, he started a weekly digital newsletter for charter shipping: Zeepost. In early 2015, at the request of the FVEN, a variant of this came out for the entire sailing heritage community: Scheepspost.

Wouter followed an incredible lot of news sources and filtered out what is relevant to us, always with a link to the source. Sometimes a piece from his own pen. Speed and timeliness were important to him. If necessary, he would post important news from his phone while sailing.

Since 2014, Wouter was also a teacher of Small Sailing at the Enkhuizer Maritime School.

We will remember Wouter as a collegiate newsman and a very engaging human being.

2018: website first

Until spring 2018, Zeepost and Scheepspost were only comprehensive, weekly e-mail newsletters, with an online archive of them as the website. In that year, Wouter flipped the formula: the articles appeared on the websites first, reaching a larger audience and attracting more sponsors. Once a week an e-mail newsletter under the same name with the previous week’s website posts.

Spring 2023: Zeilpost

Wouter also followed developments in sustainability and sailing cargo shipping from the beginning. In March 2023, he launched a third website and newsletter: Zeilpost. Besides historical ships picking up cargo shipping again, we suddenly see ultramodern ships with wing and rotor sails and computer-controlled kites. Takes some getting used to, but a new world opens up.

End of 2023: where do we go from here?

On 9 August, Wouter’s relatives sent word of his death under the headline ‘Farewell to Zeepost, Scheepspost and Zeilpost’. At that time, it also seemed unthinkable that someone with the same passion and ironclad weekly rhythm as Wouter had, could continue his work.

In the months that followed, it dawned on us what a huge void has been left. Especially the connecting power of the news, which informed all kinds of different people and parties of each other’s activities, became apparent only when everything fell silent.

That void was widely felt. A small group of concerned friends and professionals therefore worked to relaunch the websites and newsletters. Two advocacy organizations around sailing historical ships in the Netherlands  (FVEN and BBZ) put their shoulders to the wheel and were joined by the Enkhuizen Nautical College.

A non-profit foundation was set up: Zeepost Foundation. It will take care of the organizational and business side of the newsletters and websites. We keep costs low. All income will be put into improving the news service. A small independent editorial team will select the news and pass it on to the websites and newsletters. Advertisers and sponsors are again cordially invited to come forward. This also applies to newsletter subscribers, of course! Click here to sign up if you are not yet on the mailing list.

On 17 January 2024, Zeepost and Scheepspost relaunched. On 1 May, Zeilpost followed suit. Soon we decided to turn that into a bilingual website and newsletter on windassist.nl. And that’s where you are now…. Welcome!

Zeepost Foundation

Willem Bast, webmaster