The secrets of the 17th century Dutch Speeljacht and other comparable boats

Willem van de Velde made this image of the 9 meter long hull of a one masted speeljacht. (about 1675)

How does a replica process start ?

By building models and more models to get the right imagination about the reality of the past.

Hull model of the Willem vd Velde speeljacht sketch, see below

Voorbeeld van 17e-eeuwse overnaadse bouwmethode uitgevoerd in eikenhout.
17e eeuwse werkboot gebouwd door de Vereenigde Compagnie Yemont' (VCY) te Uitgeest.
Plaats: Industrieel Erfgoedpark 'De Hoop' te Uitgeest: http://www.dehoopuitgeest.nl/actueel.html
Scheepsbouwmeester Kees Sars, http://www.sarshoutbouw.nl/




Model of the scheepvaartkundig museum at Amsterdam, made by F.Kramers, after Nicolaes Witsen's book: "Aeloude Scheepsbouw en de bestier". ("Ancient and Modern Shipbuilding and Conduct"1671)

Suggestions to solve the secrets are more than welcome by Leo Vuijk.


Photo of Speeljacht model at Texel island's maritiem museum at Oudeschild (the Netherlands) presenting the fleet on the "Reede van Texel in Michiel de Ruyter's time", made by Artitec b.v. Amsterdam.

Willen v.d. Velde.Speeljachten.(Play yachts about 1650.)







Dirk Eversz. Lons, 1642 engraving Speeljacht.

The 17-th. century Dutch merchants were very wealthy individuals of that time.

These merchants put their money in the construction of sailing ships and sent them to the East to bring back pepper, tea etc. etc.

The Dutch merchants found a way to present their wealth in building pleasant housings along canals, (Amsterdam, Hoorn etc.) but also by building sailing Yachts called “Speeljacht” which are known to be used as real pleasure yachts between 1600 and 1700.

The rigging of these yachts was based on two masts equipped with two main sails, without a jib at the front and without any mast supporting stays!

The SECRET we have to solve today is,

A; why these masts were unsupported by stays

B; What was the advantage to choose for a double mainsail rigging without a Jib and the smallest sail at the front of the boat!

Lots of examples of double mast boats without a jib are found and presented below.

Willem v.d. Velde: New launched Sovereign war ships in the Medway, with small double mast working boat at the side.

WHO CAN GIVE ME THE NAME OF THIS TINY HISTORICAL BOAT?

The boat rigging looks like a Humber Gold duster (see below) however the hull is clearly different.

(You can double click for enlargement of this incredible W. v.d. Velde drawing) See also Wikipedia: "Raid on the Medway"

Interesting detail of the Sovereign warship was: that king James I, gave order to build this very expensive design made by Phineas Pett. This ship was a visible sign of the power and wealth of the nation but also the most powerful warship at that time. It became called the golden devil by the Dutch sailors who suffered from the 100 canons on board of each ship, during the three Anglo-Dutch sea battles between 1652 and 1673. As a consequence the Sovereign must have been a strong help for England to rule the waves after 1673.

We may roughly conclude that the rise of the SOVEREIGN warship was the fall of the SPEELJACHT.


Brokoa, a Basque Tuna fishing boat replica craft (built: 1991). It is known, that one of the advantages of these double mast jibless boats is that they are stable cruisers even with a fixed rudder in different wind conditions and with different wind directions. Photo: B.Mendlowitz in "The book of Wooden Boats II". Builder: Itsas Begia, Socoa, France. ...

Why do I call this secrets?

Because in modern sailing boat rigging we always use front sails like jibs on single and multiple mast concepts.Are we stumbling here on an historical mistake in sailboat rigging developement?.

Possible answers:

In the book"Glass plates and wooden boats" by M.P.Murphy and W.B.Jackson, a similar double masted fishing boat with a smaller fore sail from Block island (USA) called "Roaring Bessie"is presented. Roaring Bessie should have an incredible talent for stable cruising, with the rudder fixed only 3 degrees of variation in course showed up. Interestingly, a lot of small fishing and working boats of the recent past also showed such rigging. At the West coast of France several double masted fishing boats called Sinagot (or Sinago), are active sailing as yachts. The original function was called "Chaloupe Sardiniere".see:http://sinagot.crialeis.over-blog.com/. Also around England and Scotland lots of hitorical double masted fishing boats are described and some are even in action as museum boats. see: http://www.scotfishmuseum.org/reaper/gallery.html

Speculation:
The unsupported mast without stays could have had the advantage of fully free SAIL ROTATION (360 degr.) around the mast to be able to sail backwards after grounding the ship on hazardous sandbanks, without the need for more sailors than there needed to be for sailing the ship...

Preliminair Listing of historical relevant sailing boats with two masts, but without jibs:
Speeljacht. The Netehrlands 17 th. century

Chebacco boat, Chabacco lake Essex (MA. USA) 18?-19 th. century Trabacoto, Southern Europe small fishing boat 17 th century. Skaffie, Scottish fishing boat (flat botommed) similar to the FiFie (not flat botommed) Singora lake boat, at Singora lake Malaya. Sharpie, Connecticut oyster fishing boat, flat bottomed centerboard boat. Cat schooner, the speeljacht rig is in fact a Cat schooner rig with the main sail behind the front sail variations are possible into: Cat Ketch and Cat Yawl, having the mainsail in front and a smaller mizzen (original: portugeze: mezana) mast behind. A Ketch has the mizzen mast in front of the rudder post, a Yawl has the mizzen mast behind the rudder post. Sardine boat, several countries such as the Breton fishing boats. Morbihan lugger, like the Sinagot. Douarnenez lugger, like the Sinagot. Rau Pet, (or Rua Pet) Gulf of Siam. Nickey, Isle of Man, Irish sea fishing boat. Mount's bay driver, Cornish fishing boat. Markab, Dhow like Egyptian boat. Rascona, Venetian cargo boat with steering paddle. Madura Prau, island of Madura Java. Payang, Malaysia fishing boat. Mergui Pearler, Mergui Archipelago, Indian Ocean, near Myanmar. Launch, a small open gun boat used by the navies of France, Spain, Italian states and Turkey. Lanchang, a Malay seagoing craft with two hulls. Lakatoi, Papua new Guinea. Junk, alls kinds of Junks. Attention very few Junks have jibs! Gul, outrigger canoe from the islands in the Torres straits. Ghobun, outrigger canoe, New Guinea. Continental Galley, fitted for rowing, used in the American revolutionary war. Gaiassa (Gyassi) barge sailing in the Nile. Sambuk, Red sea. Garukha, Dhow type craft from the Persian gulf. Dhow, all around Arab countries with Latin sails. Dewang, dugout canoe, New Guinea. Vanagi, Port Moresby New Guinea. Uche, dugout canoe, at the Admiral islands. Bugeye, fishing boat at Chesapeake bay. Bragozzi, Venetian fishing boat. Block island boat, Block island, Rhode island fishing boat like Roaring Bessie mentioned before. Basque Tuna fishing boat, fishing under sail with outrigger fishing rods see photo of the Brokoa before.. The Schooner. It is well known, that the Speeljacht rigging has been the base for the early Schooner concept with two masts and additional jibs. ..