The Boat
After several exciting months, the boat we had in mind was bought by someone else in England and the project was nearly cancelled but we ran into Netherland's most famous ocean row boat in Rotterdam.
We visited the boat at the harbor campany on March 23th. It was huge! Frank den Hartich checked the boat on Sunday March 15th.
Even though it was the first hot summer day, he and Willem and Ger van Port sacrificed their Sunday to look at the boat. After several phone calls, e-mails and negotiations with the owners of the boat and our main sponsor, the boat slowly came within our budget. We met Gijs Groeneveld on board the Vopak-Victory on April 16th. He arranged the sale of the boat on behalf of the Ocean-Fours, the team who used this boat to row from New York to Rotterdam in 2005. Even though the whole project had not been worked out yet, we took an option on the boat. Time got tighter. No later than June, we wanted the boat in our boat yard, as it was less than a year before the start from New York.
On the bottom of the boat we will construct a recumbent bike construction complete with a hook transmission driven rear paddle wheel.
On top of the recumbent bike construction we will put three aluminium rods (from big to small) to pull a roof over the boat for when the weather is bad. During bad weather we will be completely protected. Underneath the front rods we have room for things like the GPS, mariphone and the navigation device. These things will be well protected agains the elements together with the sprocket gear. These rods also offer grips to easily move around the boat. On top, we have room for a sun panel and perhaps antennas.
Many expeditions get into trouble because of too complicated technical constructions or failing electronics. That's why we follow the famous KISS method as much as possible; "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"
We will carry a back-up piece on board for important equipment like the water maker, GPS and mariphone.