Ostern Sailing 2025

805.4MB zip, 267 photos

На русском. 🇷🇺

5-day trip of 9 people on a yacht through canals in the Netherlands.

captain Dmitry Borodin:

About a year ago, I had an idea to sail one of the Frisian Staande Mast Route or Fixed Mast Route — in other words, along the canals and lakes through Friesland on a sailboat with a raised mast. I was very attracted by the opportunity to stand moored in the city center, and not somewhere in a marina on its outskirts.

Last October I went on what you might call a reconnaissance trip. My friends and I chartered the motor houseboat Le Boat in Hindeloopen for the weekend and sailed through the canals and lakes to Leeuwarden and back, thereby getting some idea of ​​the route ahead.

This time the plan was to sail from Lemmer to Harlingen via the canals in three days, and then return to Lemmer by sea in two days. Looking ahead, I will say that this is what happened in the end.

The Staande Mast Route from Lemmer starts at the Prinses Margrietsluis lock, continues through the Groote Brekken lake, goes further along the Prinses Margrietkanaal canal, reaches the non-working lock at Terherne, and continues into the Nije Wjittering canal. Then, near the town of Grou, the route turns north into the Eagumerdjip canal, which passes the village of Vergea. Then, southeast of Leeuwarden, the route enters the Van Harinxmakanaal, which leads west to Harlingen and ends at the Tsjerk Hiddessluizen lock.

However, at the very beginning of the route, back in Prinses Margrietkanaal, there is one obstacle: the bridge with the unpronounceable name Uitwellingerga has been closed to both land and water transport since last year. It does not open due to the poor condition of the structure. There are several detour options, but ships with a mast are advised to go through the town of Sneek, which adds several miles and four bridges to the route.

In preparing for the hike and collecting information, I used maps of Friesland and Internet resources. I especially liked the website: https://www.vaarweginformatie.nl/frp/main/#/geo/map?layers=BRIDGE — I recommend it to everyone who is going there.

For the trip, I took a large fifty-foot Bavaria from Enjoy Sailing with a draft of 1.9 meters and a mast height from the waterline of 21 meters.